STI gains 0.24% amid mixed regional showing

SINGAPORE shares ended the week higher against a mixed showing by regional peers.

The Singapore Straits Times Index (STI) *STI ended Friday (Mar 18) up 0.24 per cent or 7.92 points to 3,330.63.

Elsewhere in Asia, some major indices were unable to build on gains posted earlier in the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 0.41 per cent while the Jakarta Composite Index dipped 0.14 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.65 per cent; South Korea's Kospi ended 0.46 per cent higher and the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index was up 0.02 per cent.

"Markets are trying to make sense of a hawkish Federal Open Market Committee that announced a dovish rate hike and believes it can tighten aggressively while maintaining growth," said Oanda Asia-Pacific senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley.

"Not helping was a lack of clarity from the Ukraine-Russia talks, on what so much of the market's recent asset class price action has been built on," he added.

Across the Singapore market, advancers outpaced decliners 288 to 179 after 1.85 billion securities worth S$2.24 billion changed hands.

The best-performing counters on the STI were Keppel Corp BN4 which was up 3.9 per cent or S$0.24 to S$6.43, and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding BS6 which gained 2.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.38.

At the bottom of the table was Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust BUOU which fell 2.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.42.

OCBC O39 and UOB U11 were among the 8 STI constituents which ended the day in the red. OCBC was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.11 to S$12.03, and UOB dipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$32.07.

DBS D05 was the exception among the trio of local lenders with shares advancing 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$34.76.

The most heavily traded stock on the blue-chip index was Singtel Z74 with over 60.1 million shares changing hands. Shares of Singtel ended the day down 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 at S$2.56.