STI down 0.1% after mixed regional session

SINGAPORE shares finished in the red after a mixed session in markets across the Asia-Pacific on Wednesday (Sep 6).

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.1 per cent or 3.95 points to close at 3,222.88.

Singapore Airlines was the top-traded counter by value. It shed 2.2 per cent or S$0.15 to S$6.75. Other counters that were heavily sold included Sembcorp and Seatrium, which ended 2.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent lower, at S$5.08 and S$0.14 respectively.

On the Singapore bourse, losers outnumbered gainers 271 to 263, with 1.5 billion securities worth S$875.2 million changing hands.

All three banks, however, finished in positive territory. OCBC was unchanged at S$12.57; DBS rose 0.2 per cent to S$33.40; and UOB gained 0.3 per cent to S$28.60.

Key markets in the region ended in mixed. Japan, Malaysia and Shanghai indices closed up marginally higher; Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea were slightly down at the closing bell on Wednesday.

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Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said that while the data from last week may have provided the Fed with a “slightly more reassuring view of the labour market’s trajectory”, it has not “definitively dispelled all the potential inflationary risks”.

“Consequently, while the markets and even the hawks on the Fed support keeping interest rates unchanged at the Sep 20 FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting, it wouldn’t be surprising to see most officials continue to project one more rate hike before the year’s end in their updated dot plot.”