Rout across Asian markets makes little impact on S'pore investors

A rout across most major Asian markets made little impression on local investors, who managed to push shares up a tad yesterday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.2 per cent, or 5.93 points, to 3,064.54. Gainers outnumbered losers slightly 237 to 233, on trade of 1.76 billion shares worth $1.04 billion.

It was a different story elsewhere, despite a modest recovery on Wall Street overnight.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index again led the decline with a fourth straight day in the red, dropping 1.5 per cent while the Kospi in Seoul snapped a four-session rally to dip 0.7 per cent. The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.6 per cent and the Jakarta Composite stayed flat.

Australian shares defied the trend to rise 0.6 per cent, mainly due to banks and the big miners.

"Asia markets are... seeking to take a breather from China's disappointing retail sales data and potential tightening of regulations around casinos in Macau," said IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong.

"This continues to drive some cautiousness for Chinese equities, as US-listed Chinese stocks largely remain in the red despite the strong up-move in US indices overnight."

The blue-chip gainers here were led by City Developments (CDL), which continued to find favour among investors following its exit from its investment in China-based Sincere Property Group. Its shares climbed 2.1 per cent to close at $7.21.

Genting Singapore was at the bottom of the performance table and the most heavily traded among STI constituents for a second straight day. It fell 3.3 per cent to 74 cents; 95.1 million shares changed hands.

The Singapore Exchange's top traded stock was Malaysian developer Hatten Land, up 140 per cent to six cents. The Catalist-listed firm announced a venture with mainboard-listed Singapore Myanmar Investco to jointly explore business opportunities in energy-efficient "green" crypto mining. About 385.3 million of its shares changed hands.