STI slips 0.6% after Powell's first rate hike

SINGAPORE stock prices took a modest dip on Thursday after the Federal Reserve, as anticipated, lifted interest rates by a quarter point to the 1.5-to-1.75 per cent range.

Following in the footsteps of Wall Street, the key Straits Times Index fell 19.76 points or 0.56 per cent on Thursday to finish at 3,491.37.

Some 1.5 billion shares worth S$1 billion were traded, and losers outpaced gainers 225 to 158.

But what caught market watchers' attention more than the Fed's move was the surge in the three-month US-dollar London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which is one of the reference points for setting borrowing rates worldwide. That has risen steadily from ab…