STI gains ground with 0.53% jump

SINGAPORE shares paid little heed to Wall Street’s overnight losses and gained ground on Tuesday (Aug 30), recouping much of the previous day’s losses sparked by rate hike jitters.

The key Straits Times Index rose 17.07 points or 0.53 per cent to finish at 3,239.33 against the backdrop of a mixed showing by regional peers. Major equity gauges in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and Malaysia advanced while China and Hong Kong retreated.

Trading sentiments remain weak as the same worries persist over the health of the global economy amid soaring inflation, rising rates and slowing economic activity.

JP Morgan Asset Management’s chief market strategist for Asia-Pacific, Tai Hui said: “Our view of staying more focused on portfolio resilience, with a preference for fixed income, remains unchanged. For equities, we expect more downgrades in earnings for coming months, and focus on quality companies who can deliver more consistent earnings performance over weaker growth would be preferred.”

Some 1.73 billion units worth S$1.02 billion were traded on the Singapore bourse. Gainers outpaced losers with 269 counters closing up and 194, down.

Hatten Land released an encouraging set of results on Monday night and was one of the day’s top 5 active counters with 32 million shares done. The property developer swung into the black in Q4 owing to higher revenue and lower operating expenses, among others. The Catalist counter rose S$0.005 or 16.13 per cent to S$0.036.

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Hong Kong: Stocks end with another loss

Asia: Markets mixed as traders steel for more rate hikes

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Marco Polo Marine was the day’s most active with 296 million shares traded. The stock drew some optimism after RHB Research deemed that the marine logistics group was at an “inflection point” based on recently released Q3 results and rising charter rates. The research house also raised the counter’s target price to S$0.05 from S$0.04. It finished at S$0.045, up S$0.008 or 21.62 per cent on Tuesday.