Singapore stocks: STI resumes Friday afternoon up 0.48% on day as Asia markets rally

SINGAPORE stocks entered the afternoon session on Friday in positive territory, tracking gains in the rest of the region.

Asian markets rallied on Friday as comments from a top Fed official were pounced on by investors as indicating the central bank will unveil a deep interest rate cut at the end of the month.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times was up 0.48 per cent or 16.05 points on the day to 3,377.10 as at 1.03pm.

Advancers outnumbers decliners 192 to 145, after about 752.5 million securities worth S$539 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, AEM gained 2.7 per cent or three Singapore cents to S$1.13 with around 13.1 million shares changing hands as at 1.03pm, while Mapletree Logistics Trust slipped 0.6 per cent or one cent to S$1.60 with 12.7 million shares traded. Genting Singapore rose 1.1 per cent or one cent to S$0.93 with 9.8 million shares traded.

SATS tumbled 5.8 per cent or 31 Singapore cents to S$5.01, with 7.8 million shares having changed hands as at 1.04pm. The airport and food services provider said on Thursday that a weaker global economy put a dent in its first-quarter net profit, which shrank 14.4 per cent to S$54.7 million.

Banking stocks made gains by the afternoon trade - DBS was up 1.3 per cent or 34 Singapore cents to S$26.65, UOB rose 1.1 per cent or 28 cents to S$26.94, and OCBC moved up 1 per cent or 12 cents to S$11.66.

Other active index securities included Singtel which increased 0.6 per cent or two Singapore cents to S$3.54 on a cum-dividend basis, and CapitaLand Commercial Trust which gained 0.5 per cent or one cent to S$2.16 on a cum-dividend basis as at 1.03pm. Venture Corporation was up 3.7 per cent or 56 cents to S$15.60.

Keppel Corporation fell 0.8 per cent or five Singapore cents to S$6.54 on a cum-dividend basis with 3.8 million shares traded as at 1.03pm. The conglomerate on Thursday evening posted a 38.4 per cent drop in net profit to S$153.4 million for its second quarter, mainly due to the absence of gains from en bloc sales of development projects.

Sabana Reit was up 1.1 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to S$0.46 as at 1.04pm. It said on Thursday night that the former tenant of its property at 10 Changi South Street 2 will pay S$2.99 million as a full and final settlement following a lease termination.

Meanwhile, Datapulse Technology was down 4.1 per cent or one Singapore cent to 23.5 cents as at 1.05pm. This was nearly an hour after the Singapore Exchange issued a notice of compliance requiring the media storage firm to showcase how it determined that its investment in a minority stake in any hotel is in the interest of its minority shareholders.