STI dips, bucking regional trend

SINGAPORE shares bucked the trend among Asian markets on Monday when the Straits Times Index (STI) declined 3.78 points or 0.12 per cent to 3,220.56, while its regional peers mostly ended green, appearing to have already priced in weaker growth expectations from China.

Key indices in Japan, China, Hong Kong, India, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia rose unanimously, despite news in the morning that China's economic growth had dropped to its slowest annual rate since 1990, as the Sino-US trade war hit consumer sentiment and capital expenditure. China registered full-year growth at 6.6 per cent, down from 6.8 per cent in 2017.

Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM, said: "The slowdown in China's economy will not impact this sentiment much unless a negative update on US-China trade negotiations is received. The release of Chinese GDP (gross domestic product) figures . . . was not a surprise, and this has been factored into asset prices."