Singapore shares ride trade talk hopes to close 0.8% higher on Friday

Most Asian markets continued to cruise upwards on Friday, following news that the US and China may resume trade talks even as the US readies another round of tariffs to take effect this weekend.

Markets in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea closed higher, most of them adding between one and 2 per cent each.

However, investors in China were less optimistic in the lead-up to the new tariffs. The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.2 per cent, while the smaller Shenzhen index fell 0.7 per cent.

Hong Kong is still grappling with protests over an extradition bill, and the Hang Seng index closed just 0.08 per cent higher amid news that several leading pro-democracy figures had been arrested.

The Straits Times Index (STI) started the day strongly, then dipped in the afternoon session before recovering to close August's trading session up 0.8 per cent or 24.69 points to 3,106.52.

However, the week's gains failed to balance out the battering the index took on Monday, and it lost 0.12 per cent over the week.

About 1.06 billion securities worth S$1.17 billion changed hands on Friday. Gainers outnumbered losers 218 to 175, or about five securities up for every four down.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding extended its streak as the most active counter on the STI, closing flat at S$0.91 with 69.4 million shares traded.

Other active counters included China Real Estate, which ended unchanged at 0.2 Singapore cent on a volume of 33.6 million shares, and Singtel, picking up two Singapore cents or 0.64 per cent to S$3.17 with 31.7 million shares changing hands.