Singapore shares inch higher on Wednesday; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares climbed marginally higher on Wednesday (Dec 22), in line with the moderate gains seen across most of the region.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.1 per cent or 2.43 points to close at 3,087.51. Elsewhere in the region key indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Australia were up between 0.1 and 0.6 per cent.

Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley noted that Asian markets have taken a more cautious approach even though the US markets had a strong overnight rally with investors buying the dip.

"With pre-holiday liquidity tumbling, and market direction entirely dominated by headline-derived volatility, it is probably not wise to get too wedded to 'the worst is over' just yet," he said.

Trading volumes in the Singapore market remained muted, with gainers outnumbering losers 207 to 205, after 844 million shares worth S$696.8 million changed hands.

Shares of Thai Beverage emerged on the top of the STI performance table, after gaining 1.5 per cent to close at S$0.665. Meanwhile, Hongkong Land finished as the bottom index performer for the day, after its shares fell 1.9 per cent to close at US$5.11.

Travel and aviation-related counters were among the losers on the local market, after the government announced tighter border safeguards with new ticket sales suspended for Vaccinated Travel Lane flights and buses into Singapore from Thursday to Jan 20 next year.

Singapore Airlines shares fell 1 per cent to close at S$4.84, Genting Singapore slipped 0.7 per cent to close at S$0.755, while Sats closed at S$3.80, down 0.3 per cent.