STI up 0.7%, led by Reits and business trusts

SINGAPORE shares were pushed into positive territory on Thursday, led by gains from real estate investment trusts (Reits) and business trusts, eclipsing worries of escalating United States-China trade tensions.

The Straits Times Index (STI) gained 17.82 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 2,612.35. Advancers outpaced decliners 271 to 170 , as 1.38 billion shares worth S$1.12 billion changed hands.

AxiCorp's chief market strategist Stephen Innes, said: "The impact of virus headlines is receding for stock markets, while price action suggests little care is given about the rising US-China tensions."

Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said that barring severe geopolitical escalation between the US and China, or poor US jobless claims data, "the underlying buy-everything globally recovery trade looks set to remain on course for the rest of the week". 

At the top of the STI table were Mapletree Logistics Trust, which rose 4.9 per cent to S$2.13, and Mapletree Industrial Trust, which gained 4.4 per cent to S$3.10. Ascendas Reit was also among top performing counters, gaining 2.7 per cent to S$3.43. 

At bottom of the table was Genting Singapore, which slipped 2 per cent to 75.5 Singapore cents. It was also the most actively traded stock for the day, with over 38 million shares changing hands. 

Other active counters outside the blue-chip index include Asian Healthcare Specialists, the share price of which surged 38.4 per cent to S$0.24, on the back of news that it had entered a partnership with Temasek Holdings' Heliconia unit to pursue healthcare investments in South-east Asia. Over 19.5 million shares changed hands. 

Elsewhere in Asia, financial markets in Japan were closed on Thursday for a public holiday. Regional benchmarks Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia registered gains.