STI rises 1.2% despite mixed regional showing

SINGAPORE shares ended Friday (Dec 8) in the black, with the benchmark Straits Times Index gaining 1.2 per cent or 36.47 to 3,110.73.

Across the broader market, advancers led decliners 357 to 215, as 1.3 billion shares worth S$847 million changed hands.

Gains in the STI, the local blue-chip barometer, were led in percentage terms by offshore and marine company Seatrium , which leapt 7.9 per cent to end Friday at S$0.109. Around 515.9 million of its shares traded on the bourse.

The mainboard-listed group in November guided for a full-year loss in FY2023 during its most recent earnings briefing for the nine months ended Sep 30, despite its net order book growing to S$17.7 billion.

Property developer UOL was the only constituent to retreat on the STI, falling 0.3 per cent to S$6.02.

UOL and fellow developer Singapore Land had in November announced it sold 57 per cent, or 102 of 180 units, of Watten House at a private preview.

The three local banks ended Friday higher. DBS rose 1.4 per cent to S$31.60, UOB climbed 1.4 per cent to S$27.58, and OCBC gained 1.1 per cent to close Friday at S$12.65.

Key indices in the region ended the week mixed. South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index rose one per cent, while the Hang Seng Index and Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index ticked down 0.1 per cent each.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.7 per cent.

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Saxo’s Asia-Pacific strategy team said there was a “dramatic move” overnight in the yen after Bank of Japan governor Ueda Kazuo remarked on the challenges of maintaining an “easy policy” towards the end of this year and into early 2024 – a comment with “elements of hawkishness”.

The exchange rate between the greenback and the yen is now back at around 144, as markets question whether an early policy move is likely, and position themselves for the US jobs data due on Friday, said the team in a note.