Cautious trading for Singapore stocks as global outlook remains clouded
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The benchmark Straits Times Index fell 0.6 per cent or 18.86 points to 3,241.17.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Tan Nai Lun
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE - Singapore stocks ended lower on Monday as investors traded with caution amid an uncertain economic outlook.
The benchmark Straits Times Index fell 0.6 per cent or 18.86 points to 3,241.17. Losers beat gainers 298 to 225 as 1.3 billion shares worth $905.9 million changed hands.
Mr Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that investors likely shifted their focus to China, given that US markets were closed for holidays.
But a downgrade in gross domestic product expectations for China had “darkened the outlook in a week (in which) many had high hopes”, and pushed back optimism about a stimulus from the Chinese central bank as well as improved China-US relations, he said.
A wide disparity between the US Federal Reserve’s and markets’ forward inflation expectations also drove cautious trading, he added.
Elsewhere in Asia, key indexes were in the red. The Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 per cent, the Nikkei 225 lost 1 per cent, the Kospi slid 0.6 per cent and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 0.1 per cent.
Within the Singapore market, Singapore Airlines (SIA) was the top traded counter by value, losing 1.3 per cent or 10 cents to close at $7.67.
On Friday, the flag carrier refuted a media report saying it may raise its stake in Air India to about 40 per cent. SIA has a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India, secured as part of a merger between the latter and Vistara – SIA’s joint venture with Tata Sons. The counter ended a 12-day winning streak on Friday.
Top Glove was also actively traded on Monday, with 14.7 million shares worth $4 million changing hands. It closed 7 per cent or two cents lower at 26.5 cents. On Friday, the glove-maker posted a net loss of RM130.6 million (S$37.9 million) for its third fiscal quarter ended May 31, reversing its earnings of RM15.3 million a year earlier.
The trio of local banks ended lower on Monday. DBS fell 0.2 per cent or seven cents to $31.11, OCBC Bank lost 0.5 per cent or six cents to close at $12.59, and UOB ended 0.5 per cent or 14 cents lower at $27.82. THE BUSINESS TIMES
