STI slips 0.81% after surprise General Election outcome

SINGAPORE stocks ended Monday on a softer note, after a surprise general election outcome in the early hours of Saturday, in which the ruling People's Action Party secured a smaller-than-expected margin of victory.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) ended the day at 2,631.08, down 21.57 points or 0.81 per cent.

By contrast, key regional markets closed higher for the day. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.17 per cent. South Korea's Kospi was 1.67 per cent higher. The benchmark indices in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta were up 0.92 per cent and 0.66 per cent respectively.

The biggest loser within the STI was City Developments, which closed 3.9 per cent lower at S$8.37, after warning that its pre-tax profit for H1 2020 would be "substantially" lower than last year.

Other stocks that weighed on the STI were Thai Beverage, SATS and ST Engineering, which were down 3.55 per cent, 3.47 per cent and 2.39 per cent respectively

Analysts are not expecting the post-election dip to last though. "Despite a decline in PAP's vote share and Parliament seats, we expect any impact on the stock market to be temporary and insignificant, given our expectations of policy continuity in the near-term," said OCBC Investment Research, in a note on Monday.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Among counters that saw big price moves was premium seafood supplier Oceanus Group, which ended at S$0.008, up 33.3 per cent. The company said last week that it is now on a firmer footing, and has obtained its first clean audit opinion in nine years.

Willas-Array Electronics ended the day at S$0.38, up 65.2 per cent. Last week, the company issued a positive profit alert, stating that its net profit for the three months to June 30 would come in at about HK$6.5 million (S$1.17 million) versus a net loss of HK$24.6 million for the same period last year.