Singapore stocks close higher on Thursday, tracking regional gains; STI up 0.8%

SINGAPORE shares made gains on Thursday (Jul 7), mirroring a rally in regional markets as lower oil prices provided some relief to investors.

The Straits Times Index (STI) closed 0.8 per cent or 25.74 points higher at 3,129.40.

Elsewhere in the region, markets also ended mostly higher, despite hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. 

South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively, while Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 2.5 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.3 per cent. 

“The North Asian energy-importing heavyweights are booking impressive gains today as Brent crude slumped to around US$100 a barrel overnight,” Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said. 

However, he noted that the fall in oil prices appeared to be “driven by a culling of speculative longs and trend-following fast money”, with nothing materially changing in real world supply and demand imbalance.

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Across the broader Singapore market, gainers outnumbered losers 249 to 201, after 1.2 billion securities worth S$944.3 million were traded.

Wilmar International led gainers on the STI, climbing 3.2 per cent to close at S$4.14. Other top performers include DFI Retail Group and Jardine Matheson Holdings , which were both up 2.4 per cent.

Just 2 STI counters ended the day in the red, including Hongkong Land , which slipped 0.4 per cent to US$4.94.

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Yangzijiang Shipbuilding – which announced on Wednesday that it clinched an order for 4 containerships – ended at the bottom of the index performance table, falling 1.6 per cent to close at S$0.915.