Market edges up amid thin trading ahead of Christmas

Local investors seemed more focused on Santa Claus than shares yesterday, but they still managed to nudge the market up a notch in line with gains in the region.

What festive cheer there was sent the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) up 0.3 per cent, or 9.3 points, to 3,096.81, but trade was anaemic with just 878.5 million shares worth $515.8 million done as gainers beat losers 265 to 169.

Elsewhere, key indexes in Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and South Korea rose between 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent. Australia's ASX 200 added 0.3 per cent after hitting an eight-day high earlier.

The positive mood came as several studies suggested that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is less likely than the Delta variant to put people in hospital, although it appears more contagious.

Keppel DC Reit was the biggest STI decliner, shedding 1.2 per cent to $2.40, while Dairy Farm International ended as the top STI performer, up 2.2 per cent at US$2.75.

Travel-linked counters Singapore Airlines and Sats, which both fell on Wednesday, were among the top gainers, rising around 1.4 per cent.

Genting Singapore also rose, climbing 0.7 per cent to 76 cents.

RHB's Singapore research team noted that Omicron poses some uncertainty to Genting's earnings recovery path, but it believes that this is just a temporary hurdle. It maintained a "buy" call with a target price of 90 cents.

While Omicron cases are soaring, observers have become more confident that the health effects will be milder than with earlier strains.

"Markets hate uncertainty and not knowing, and when Omicron hit the markets, we didn't know," Ms Carol Schleif, deputy chief investment officer at BMO Family Office, told Bloomberg Television.

"But it seems like it's edging towards something more positive."