The Business Times

Singapore stocks: STI resumes Monday afternoon at 3,235.64, down 1.2% on day

Published Mon, May 13, 2019 · 05:29 AM

WITH the US and China deadlocked in trade deal negotiations and uncertainty growing among investors, the Singapore market started the week in negative territory, continuing to trend downwards in the afternoon session.

While the market rebounded on Friday on hopes that trade talks in Washington could bear some fruit, the resulting impasse between the two largest economies saw the Straits Times Index (STI) trade at 3,235.64, down 37.86 points or 1.2 per cent, as at 1.03pm on Monday.

Shortly after the afternoon session commenced, volume clocked in at 343.12 million securities traded and total turnover came in at S$426.44 million.

Across the market, decliners outpaced advancers 249 to 77. Compared to the broader market, the benchmark index had 25 of the STI's 30 components trading in the red.

The index was weighed down by the local banks, which make up 40 per cent of the total weighting of the STI.

DBS Group Holdings was trading down S$0.44 or 1.7 per cent at S$26.11. Shares in DBS declined as much as 1.88 per cent during Monday morning's trading session following a Citi Investment Research downgrade of the bank to "neutral" with a lower target price of S$27.00 due to the lender's exposure to China amid uncertainties over a US-China trade deal.

Meanwhile, OCBC Bank was lower by S$0.18 or 1.6 per cent at S$11.21; and United Overseas Bank dropped S$0.28 or 1.1 per cent to S$25.33.

In a Monday report, UOB Kay Hian remains overweight on the Singapore banking sector with "buy" calls on DBS and OCBC with a target price of S$30.50 and S$14.62, respectively.

ThaiBev was the most traded counter, with 50.3 million shares changing hands. The food and beverage player is trading down 7.5 Singapore cents or 9.1 per cent at S$0.75 after posting a 12 per cent dip in its bottom line for the second quarter. The results were in-line with street expectations.

Across Asia, most markets were down. Australia and Malaysia were down 0.4 per cent, Japan fell by 0.7 per cent, China was 1.0 per cent, while South Korea slid 1.1 per cent.

The Hong Kong market is closed and will resume trading on Tuesday.

BT is now on Telegram!

For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to  t.me/BizTimes

Capital Markets & Currencies

SUPPORT SOUTH-EAST ASIA'S LEADING FINANCIAL DAILY

Get the latest coverage and full access to all BT premium content.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Browse corporate subscription here