Singapore stocks extend gains on Thursday, rising 0.7%

WHILE most regional markets continued to tread water pending Sino-US trade developments, Singapore's bourse again seemed unfazed on Thursday, its activities swayed more by local corporate developments instead.

The Straits Times Index extended gains, rising 23.03 points or 0.71 per cent to 3,285.72.

Gainers outnumbered losers 235 to 165 amid heavier trading than the day before. Thursday's turnover on the bourse was 1.85 billion securities worth S$1.38 billion.

Shares of Mainboard-listed offshore oil and gas contractor Dyna-Mac Holdings and Citic Envirotech, a water treatment firm, were among the most traded and saw some of the largest gains on the day.

Dyna-Mac closed at S$0.131, S$0.015 or 12.93 per cent higher, after surging as much as 18.1 per cent in the morning session. Some 42.6 million shares had changed hands by the end of the day.

The company's shares had traded largely unchanged for the past month, but rose steadily since the start of this week.

Thursday's unusual price movements prompted a query from the Singapore Exchange but Dyna-Mac later responded that it was unaware of any information or possible explanations for the trading.

Just last week, the company's founder and largest shareholder Desmond Lim had died. He had held a 41 per cent stake as at March 13, while Temasek, the next largest shareholder, held about 25 per cent.

Meanwhile, Citic's counter shot up 44.60 per cent or S$0.165 to S$0.535 on Thursday, with over 50 million shares changing hands.

In a bid to exit the bourse, Citic Group Corp's Citic Environment Investment Group is offering S$0.55 in cash for each share.

Heavyweight financial stocks also supported the index, with DBS Group rising 0.99 per cent or S$0.26 to S$26.66, while United Overseas Bank gained 0.34 per cent or S$0.09 to S$26.97. Both counters were among the top gainers by value.