Singapore shares advance with most regional peers amid receding taper fears

SINGAPORE shares advanced on Monday following last week's disappointing US employment data, which substantially lowered the risk of the Federal Reserve (Fed) tapering its massive financial support programme.

The Singapore Straits Times Index (STI) *STI rose 0.56 per cent or 17.23 points to 3,101.08. Elsewhere in Asia, most key benchmark indices ended the day higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 led gains in the region, climbing 1.83 per cent on hopes for more economic stimulus. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 1.01 per cent; Seoul's Kospi eked out 0.07 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 0.48 per cent while the Jakarta Composite Index ended the day unchanged.

Fed officials would be keeping an eye on more jobs data points before it starts to reduce quantitative easing, according to the UOB Global Economics and Market Research Team in a note on Monday.

"The other factor the Fed will watch is the resurgence of Covid-19 Delta variant infections and its consequential downside impact to the economy and jobs recovery. The obvious push factor for the Fed to reduce some monetary accommodation will be the elevated inflation environment," said the research team.

Across the Singapore market, gainers outnumbered losers 273 to 197, after 1.84 billion securities worth S$855.4 million changed hands.

The best-performing stock on the STI was ComfortDelGro C52 , which ended the day up 1.9 per cent or S$0.03 at S$1.62.

Its subsidiary ComfortDelGro Engineering and its consortium partner ENGIE South East Asia had won Singapore's electric vehicle charging infrastructure pilot tender awarded by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Land Transport Authority.

While achieving large profitability could take time for the transport operator, the win is "important in gaining experience and building a track record to clinch future tenders", said DBS Group Research on Monday.

At the bottom of the table was Jardine Matheson Holdings J36 which shed US$0.62 or 1.1 per cent to US$55.31.

Genting Singapore G13 was the most active counter on the blue-chip index, with over 22.2 million shares changing hands. Its shares ended the day at 78.5 Singapore cents, up half a cent or 0.6 per cent.

Other heavily traded securities outside the STI include Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) S51 which saw over 216.2 million shares changing hands. Its shares rose 0.1 Singapore cent or 1.2 per cent to 8.7 cents. UOB Kay Hian had on Monday upgraded the company to "buy" as it believes the group's S$1.5 billion rights issue should enable it to better weather market conditions over the next 12-18 months, and potentially garner new order flow.