STI edges up, with banks gaining

STOCKS on the local exchange ended marginally up on Wednesday's closing bell, after a session that saw the local bourse dip in early trade before rising above water.

The key Straits Times Index (STI) inched up 0.27 per cent, or 9.10 points, to close at 3,328.95 on Wednesday.

The top active stocks during the session were DBS Group Holdings, which gained 0.71 per cent, and Singtel, which gained 0.31 per cent. Electronics manufacturer Venture advanced 6.84 per cent and OCBC Bank gained 0.26 per cent.

CapitaLand, meanwhile, shed 1.24 per cent to end at S$3.19.

All three local banks ended higher, ahead of their results reporting later this week. DBS is reporting on Thursday morning, and United Overseas Bank, Friday.

UOB advanced at the end of trading on Wednesday by 0.89 per cent to close at S$27.26.

"If we look at their (the banks') recent share price performance, they have recovered somewhat from the early July lows, and hence we could be seeing some buying ahead of their results," said Liu Jinshu, director of NRA Capital in Singapore.

Still on banking, Asean loan issuance rose 15 per cent in the year to date, compared with the same period last year, as the number of transactions declined, data from Bloomberg showed.

OCBC was the biggest mandated lead arranger, taking some 10.6 per cent of the market, followed by DBS Group with 9.3 per cent, and United Overseas Bank at 8.7 per cent.

News also broke on Wednesday that the nation's financial sector will undergo the International Monetary Fund's Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) this year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said.

The FSAP - Singapore's third - is a stress test which assesses the resilience of the financial sector, the quality of MAS's regulatory framework and supervision, and the capacity of the authorities to manage and resolve financial crises.

Meanwhile, Great Eastern revealed its second fiscal quarter results, which showed it posted a net profit of S$237.6 million for Q2, up 3 per cent from S$231.6 million a year ago.

The insurance arm of OCBC Bank declared an interim one-tier tax exempt dividend of 10 Singapore cents per ordinary share.

Its shares ticked upwards by 0.25 per cent, or 7 Singapore cents, to close on Wednesday at S$27.70.

The stock has been inching upwards since July 30, where it touched S$27.50, a level last seen in late December last year.

In transport, Bloomberg noted that ComfortDelGro, which owns Singapore's largest taxi fleet, may see some movement in its stock after the Land Transport Authority granted a full-fledged, 10-year taxi service operator licence to HDT Singapore Taxi, it said in a report.

ComfortDelGro is Singapore's best-performing stock with a rise of over 19 per cent rise this year. The counter was trading 0.85 per cent up - or 2 Singapore cents - to S$2.37 on Wednesday, well above a low of S$1.98 it touched in late February.

In regional bourses, the Hang Seng ended lower on Wednesday, pulled down by property developers as the Chinese government doubled down on home price increases, topped off with weak data and an escalating trade war, while South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei gained, as did Taiwan's Taiex, boosted by rising tech shares on Apple's robust iPhone X sales.

All was not quiet on the trade war front as fresh fears were rekindled after news emerged that the Trump administration plans to propose slapping a 25 per cent tariff on US$200 billion of imported Chinese goods after initially setting it at 10 per cent, a source familiar with the plan said on Tuesday.

Reuters reported, citing a source, that the goods included food products, chemicals, steel and aluminium and consumer goods, ranging from dog food, furniture and carpets to car tires, bicycles, baseball gloves and beauty products.

For the full listing of SGX prices, go to btd.sg/BTmkts