Singapore shares close 0.3% higher, tracking Wall Street gains

THE Straits Times Index (STI) ended Thursday at 2,707.20 points, up 6.81 points or 0.3 per cent, tracking Wall Street's gains on better employment and manufacturing data.

Decliners outpaced advancers 249 to 212, with about 1.64 billion securities worth S$2.19 billion having changed hands.

Said Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley: "The overnight price action on Wall Street was very much a re-run of the day before. The momentum in global recovery trade remains undiminished, with equities carving out fresh gains globally and the rotation out of the US dollar continuing apace."

Among the STI constituents, the best performer was ST Engineering, which rose 2.4 per cent or S$0.08 to S$3.49.

ComfortDelGro reversed yesterday's gains and emerged as the worst-performing stock for the day, falling 2.5 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.57. It was the most actively traded stock with over 58 million shares changing hands.

Also at the bottom of the STI's table were CapitaLand Mall Trust, CapitaLand and CapitaLand Commercial Trust, which fell 2.3 per cent, 1.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

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The STI's performance was in line with regional benchmarks, but investors have taken some risk off ahead of the European Central Bank meeting and the release US' non-farm payroll figures, said Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp.

"But in general, investors continue to cling to optimism for a speedy economic recovery from the pandemic and on anticipation of more stimulus from the EU," he added.