Singapore shares close 0.9% higher

A RALLY in US stocks overnight Thursday pushed the Singapore stock market's key Straits Times Index up 32.58 points or 0.9 per cent to finish at 3,570.17 on Friday.

Some 1.9 billion shares worth S$1.4 billion were done versus the previous day's 1.6 billion shares worth S$1.2 billion with 243 counters up and 143 counters down.

The substantial gains in the US key indices, Dow and S&P 500, following softer-than-expected US inflation data for April pushed up the benchmark indices of other major Asian bourses including Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

Softer CPI (consumer price index) and PPI (producer price index) out of the US, and last Friday's wage growth data indicate that the Federal Reserve will stick to its current pace of monetary policy normalisation.

"While the soft CPI figures are unlikely to derail the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates in June, the numbers are not encouraging enough to suspect that US interest rates will be raised more than expectations this year," said FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga.

IG Markets' Jingyi Pan attributed the gains in the STI partly to the stunning outcome of Malaysia's 14th general election that was held midweek with the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) led by Mahathir Mohamad emerging victorious. Dr Mahathir was sworn in as Malaysia's Prime Minister on Thursday.

The Malaysian stock market will reopen next Monday after it was shut since polling day with analysts expecting volatility given lingering policy uncertainties.

A notable star performer was Genting Singapore with a gain of 12 Singapore cents or over 10 per cent to S$1.28. It was the day's most active with 124 million shares done.

The chips are up for the casino giant after it reported a set of first quarter results that beat expectations led by a surge in rolling volume and favourable VIP holds. Given its sturdy start to the year, RHB Research deemed the stock's recent weakness as unjustified and foresees a rerating ahead on the back of further growth potential.

The battle over India's second largest hospital chain, Fortis Healthcare, may be pretty much over with the board picking the bids by Munjal-Burman - two prominent Indian families. "We are disappointed by the decision . . . we believe we submitted the most compelling bid," said IHH managing director and chief executive Tan See Leng.

IHH shares closed unchanged at S$2.03.