STI up 0.7% amid regional rally

SINGAPORE stocks edged up amid a regional rally on Friday (May 27), with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 0.7 per cent or 21.37 points to 3,230.55.

Regional indices were up, tracking a strong finish on Wall Street overnight. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.9 per cent, Jakarta Composite Index climbed 2.1 per cent, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi was up 1 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 per cent, while Kuala Lumpur Composite Index ended 0.4 per cent higher.

Jeffrey Halley, Oanda’s senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific, said Asian equities were buoyed by Wall Street’s “powerful rally” owing primarily to strong results from retailers.

“The impressive overnight rally has allowed Asian markets to ignore weakning China industrial profits this morning,” he said. Profits at Chinese industrial firms slumped at their fastest place in 2 years amid high raw material prices.

Jardine Matheson : J36 0% was the top gainer on the STI, climbing 4.1 per cent or US$2.26 to close at US$57.76.

At the bottom of the table was Singtel : Z74 0%. Despite making steady gains the previous day, the counter on Friday fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to end at S$2.70. It was the most heavily traded counter by volume, with some 42.8 million securities changing hands throughout the day.

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The trio of local banks also saw gains. UOB : U11 0% climbed 0.9 per cent or S$0.27 to S$29.38, OCBC : O39 0% gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$11.70, while DBS : D05 0% ended up 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 to S$31.10.

Gainers beat losers 288 to 166 in the broader market, with 1.4 billion securities worth S$1.08 billion changing hands.