Singapore stocks end Friday mixed, Reits and property developers lead the way

SINGAPORE stocks ended the holiday-shortened week on a mixed note, amid concerns about US-China tensions and optimism about the lifting of Covid-19 lockdowns.

The benchmark Straits Times Index opened softer on Friday, but edged higher through the day. It closed 2,510.75, down just 4.49 points.

Among the index components, property was very much the theme, with Reits and property developers accounting for seven out of the eight best-performing STI stocks.

Leading these gainers were Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT), CapitaLand Commercial Trust and CapitaLand Mall Trust, which ended Friday up 6.77 per cent, 5.42 per cent and 5.18 per cent respectively.

MLT is being added to the MSCI Singapore Index as of the close of the market today.

The three biggest losers in the index were Singapore Press Holdings, Sembcorp Industries and SATS, which were down 12.33 per cent, 9.93 per cent and 5.67 per cent respectively.

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All three stocks, along with ComfortDelGro Corp, are being dropped from the MSCI Singapore Index.

Among the smaller stocks, tiny Spackman Entertainment Group was up 25 per cent on Friday, closing at S$0.01.

On May 28, the company announced that its movie #Alive is expected to be released on June 24 in Korea.

The day before, Spackman said it would raise more than S$5.35 million through the issue of 743.6 million new shares at S$0.0072 each to a group of investors.

The placement shares represent approximately 63.1 per cent of Spackman's current outstanding shares, but the investors are not taking control of the company.

Elsewhere, Broadway Industrial Group jumped 18.4 per cent to close at S$0.116.

The company said on Thursday this week that it had entered into a "non-binding indicative proposal" to dispose of its hard disk-drive business at price yet to be disclosed.