STI drops 0.67% to 2,827.32 points; glove-makers gain but aviation-related stocks lose

THE Straits Times Index (STI) was 0.67 per cent or 19.2 points down at 2,827.32 points on Tuesday, as global covid situation deteriorated, sparking lockdowns and tighter border restrictions.

The coronavirus resurgence in countries including the United Kingdom and Australia has produced gainers and losers on the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday.

Glove-maker counters including Riverstone, Top Glove and UG Healthcare saw their prices tick up, with UG Healthcare registering the most gain among the lot - up 9.65 per cent to close at S$0.625. Riverstone closed 6.25 per cent higher at S$1.19 while Top Glove gained 0.92 per cent to S$2.20.

In contrast, aviation-related counters such as Singapore Airlines (SIA), ground handler and inflight caterer Sats, and SIA Engineering were hit by the global flare-up. SIA dropped 3.43 per cent to S$4.23, Sats declined 3.19 per cent to S$3.94, and SIA Engineering was trading at S$1.94 at the closing bell, 3.48 per cent lower.

Also, SIA earlier announced it had used S$7.1 billion or about 80 per cent of the S$8.8 billion raised in the dilutive rights issue this year, as the national carrier continues to burn through hundreds of millions of dollars a month.

This could lead the carrier to tap the S$6.2 billion issuance of additional mandatory convertible bonds.

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Sembcorp Marine, with over 161.6 million shares traded, topped the most active tally. The counter was down 2.78 per cent to S$0.14.

Decliners outnumbered gainers 277 to 178, with 1.64 billion securities worth S$1.32 billion traded.

Regional markets were mostly down, with the Shanghai Composite Index posting the most decline among key indices as it dropped 1.86 per cent to 3,356.78 points. Its counterpart South Korea's Kospi Index was down 1.62 per cent to 2,733.68, its greatest decline in two weeks.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.05 per cent to 6,599.57 while Japan's Nikkei 225 Index declined 1.04 per cent to 26,436.39.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 0.71 per cent lower at 26,119.75 and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index dropped 0.97 per cent to 1,631.92 points.