Bulls And Bears

STI dips 0.17% after a day of mixed signals

Uncertainty sends market fluctuating all day as S'pore stocks react to varying news

A decidedly bullish tone on Wall Street overnight did little to influence sentiment across the region, given mounting concerns about United States-China tensions.

Uncertainty and wariness among investors here sent the market fluctuating all day, with stocks reacting to a mixed bag of news headlines and trading themes.

The lack of direction left the Straits Times Index at 2,515.24, down 4.24 points or 0.17 per cent. There were 1.72 billion shares worth $1.76 billion traded, with losers pipping gainers 227 to 202.

One of the worst performers was Singtel, which ended at $2.51, down 4.2 per cent. This came after Singapore's largest telco reported a 25.7 per cent drop in earnings to $574.4 million for the fourth quarter.

ComfortDelGro was another significant loser yesterday, closing down 1.96 per cent at $1.50 after the transport giant said it would halve taxi rents for next month.

The STI's best performers were CapitaLand Mall Trust, CapitaLand Commercial Trust and Jardine Strategic Holdings, each posting gains of about 2.5 per cent.

Elsewhere, attention seemed to shift to rubber suppliers after the enormous gains chalked up by glove makers such as UG Healthcare and Riverstone.

Sri Trang Agro Industry bounced strongly in the morning and held on to its gains, ending at $1.39, up 18.8 per cent.

Halcyon Agri was slower off the mark and endured more volatile trading before closing up 15.2 per cent at 45.5 cents.

Other regional markets were mixed. Japan ended up 2.3 per cent on optimism over the reopening of economies worldwide, but Hong Kong fell 0.72 per cent as traders grow increasingly worried about the impact of the United States revoking the city's preferential status.

South Korea receded 0.13 per cent as its central bank cut interest rates to a record low yesterday, while Australia added 1.3 per cent.

AxiCorp analyst Stephen Innes said traders remain in the market for riskier assets: "As the equity rally continues, the laundry list of things investors cared about is dwindling by the hour."

However, Mr David Kelly from JP Morgan Asset Management said many concerns remain: "Eventually we will see a recovery but... I think analysts are still way too optimistic about corporate profits.

"We are in for a much deeper profit slide than investors are expecting, and that does make the stock market somewhat vulnerable."

• Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 29, 2020, with the headline STI dips 0.17% after a day of mixed signals. Subscribe