Singapore shares close up 0.48%, buck regional markets slide on rising yields

SINGAPORE stock market escaped the red ink that swept across key regional indexes, from Shanghai to South Korea as rising bond yields sent their investors scurrying for exit.

The city-state's blue-chip gauge, the Straits Times Index (STI), rose 0.48 per cent or 14.41 points to 3,014.78 points on Thursday.

Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, said the technical pictures have been screaming downside correction for some time on a number of key equity markets, and he believes that global equity markets are on the cusp of a material correction.

Also, he noted that the North Asian markets - the prime beneficiaries of the recovery from the March 2020 lows - were being heavily sold, as with the technology-heavy S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes. Asean markets, however, being made up of "dull" banks, property and resource stocks, were holding their own.

The Shanghai Composite Index was 2.05 per cent lower at 3,503.49 points, while its peer Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 2.15 per cent to 29,236.79 points.

South Korea's Kospi reported a dip of 1.28 per cent to 3,043.49 points, as did Japan's Nikkei 225 as it fell 2.13 per cent to 28,930.11 points. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.84 per cent lower at 6,760.71. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was at 1,581.26 points, down 0.45 per cent.

Shares in Catalist-listed Union Gas were up 5.8 per cent to S$0.73, making it one of the better performers as investors responded to the fuel player's announcement that it is assessing the potential of redeveloping its fuel station into a multi-fuels and energy facility.

Top Glove slipped 3.53 per cent to S$1.64, even as DBS maintains "overweight" on Malaysia's health care.