Singapore shares end week mostly unchanged amid virus jitters

LOCAL stocks ended the week flat as traders were cautious about a rise in coronavirus cases and the resultant tighter restrictions that kicked in earlier this week.

The benchmark Straits Times Index eased by a marginal 0.07 per cent or 2.21 points to close on Friday at 3,157.05. Losers outpaced gainers 256 to 215, after 1.31 billion securities worth some S$792.3 million changed hands.

On the macroeconomic data front, Singapore consumer prices rose for the sixth straight month in June. Headline inflation of 2.4 per cent held steady from May, though it fell short of the 2.5 per cent forecast in a private-sector Bloomberg poll.

Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley, for one, is choosing to take optimism in the fact that Singapore is "streets ahead with its vaccination programme".

"Once (Singapore) gets past these next two months, that should enable the city-state to be an outperformer in the Asean crowd into Q4," he said.

On the local bourse, J36 was the top advancer for the second consecutive day. The counter ended Friday at US$62.59, up 0.6 per cent or US$0.39.

Ahead of its results announcement that is slated to be released after market hours on Friday, AIY was also among the top gainers. The stock rose 0.9 per cent or S$0.08 to S$9.18.

Several conglomerates were among the biggest losers on Friday. V03 lost 0.4 per cent or S$0.07 to S$19.07; C31 fell 1.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$4.00, while BN4 slid 0.9 per cent or S$0.05 to S$5.30.

C6L was another notable decliner after emerging one of the top advancers on Thursday. The counter closed at S$4.91, down 0.8 per cent or S$0.04.

Elsewhere in the region, markets ended the day mixed. The Nikkei rose 0.6 per cent, while the Kospi inched up 0.1 per cent.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.5 per cent; the KLCI lost 0.3 per cent, and Jakarta Composite Index shed 0.6 per cent.