Singapore stock market caps week roiled by rate hikes with 0.02% gain on Friday

THE Singapore market capped a week roiled by some major central banks' policy rate hikes with the Straits Times Index (STI) posting a modest gain of 0.02 per cent or 0.66 points to 3,098.09 on Friday (Jun 17), as it gave the sell-off seen at Wall Street overnight and some regional bourses a miss.

The blue chip gauge’s better showing could partly be attributed to Singapore’s favourable non-oil domestic exports data released on Friday. While the gauge clocked a gain, it had been in the red at daily close for the first 4 trading days this week - although it also managed to escape the wild swings experienced by some of its regional counterparts.

Overall, the STI closed 2.6 per cent lower this week, as investors took flight amid the hawkish moves by central banks in the United States and Europe to tamp down runaway inflation with steep rate rises.

Gainers trailed losers across the broader market on the local bourse at 232 to 294 on heavy trading on Friday, as 2.17 billion securities with a total value of S$2.3 billion were transacted.

Electric vehicle company Nio shares, having declined for days since the company announced its quarterly loss last week, appeared to have recharged and moved higher. The share price closed up 3.3 per cent to US$20.12.

Wilmar Internationa l, despite its share repurchases, failed to bolster its share price as the counter dipped 0.7 per cent to S$4.01.