STI starts 2021 on a positive note, up 0.53% as regional indices finish mixed

SINGAPORE shares started 2021 on a positive note, with the Singapore benchmark Straits Times Index gaining 15.09 points or 0.53 per cent to 2,858.9, following macrodata showing that Singapore's economic contraction slowed in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Some 1.7 billion securities worth S$992.8 million changed hands, as gainers outnumbered losers 260 to 190.

The Singapore Exchange was the top performer on the index, gaining S$0.42 or 4.53 per cent to S$9.70, which Bloomberg data showed was more than any of its full-day gains since last September.

The worst performer was City Developments, which shed S$0.17 or 2.13 per cent to S$7.80, after independent non-executive director Tan Yee Peng on Monday became the third director to step down in recent months over the firm's investment in China-based developer Sincere Property Group.

The most active counter of the day was Sembcorp Marine, which rose S$0.01 or 6.99 per cent to S$0.153, on a volume of 161.3 million. It has not made any recent corporate announcements, but this came amid additional Covid-19 measures announced for the marine sector after recent cases formed family clusters.

In the region, the Hang Seng Index gained 0.89 per cent, coat-tailing the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index which added 0.86 per cent, on expansionary China PMI data in December.

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Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.68 per cent, as Tokyo called on the government to announce a state of emergency to combat a recent surge in cases, while Malaysia's KLCI lost 1.51 per cent, weighed by a sell-down in glovemakers as investors anticipate a post-Covid future.

Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, Oanda, said: "Investors appear keen to lock in profits after a mighty rally in those stocks in Malaysia throughout 2020," he said.