Singapore shares dive a day after US unleashes tariff tsunami; STI down 3%
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The fear that has gripped global bourses over the past 48 hours hit home with a vengeance and sent STI tumbling 3 per cent.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Tay Peck Gek
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SINGAPORE – Local investors dodged a bullet on the day the Trump tariffs were announced but it was a different story on April 4 when a sea of red engulfed the market.
The fear that has gripped global bourses over the past 48 hours hit home with a vengeance and sent the Straits Times Index (STI) tumbling 3 per cent or 116.37 points to 3,825.86 and down 3.7 per cent for the week.
No surprise that losers belted gainers 378 to 105 on trade of 1.4 billion securities worth $2.9 billion.
All but two of the STI’s 30 stocks closed in the red, a day after the US unveiled tariffs ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent.
Thai Beverage and Genting Singapore were the two STI shares not hit, with both finishing flat. DBS Bank was the STI’s worst performer, down 4.9 per cent at $43.30.
CGS International noted: “We reiterate our risk-off strategy in the near term, preferring stocks with more certainty in earnings, such as Reits (real estate investment trusts) and high-dividend yield plays.
“We advocate investors to go for large-cap defensive names such as Singtel, ST Engineering, CapitaLand Ascendas Reit and Keppel DC Reit.”
The day’s mood of gloom and doom was set by Wall Street overnight, where markets suffered their steepest falls since 2020, as investors feared the tariffs will spark global retaliation and batter the economy.
Around US$3.1 trillion (S$4.2 trillion) in market value was wiped out in the rout, the largest one-day decline since March 2020. The Dow Industrials fell 4 per cent, the S&P 500 dived 4.8 per cent and tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 6 per cent.
Regional bourses that traded were belted, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 logging the highest loss at 2.8 per cent. Australian shares officially entered correction territory, down 2.4 per cent on April 4 and 10 per cent below the record of Feb 14.
The Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Indonesian markets were closed. THE BUSINESS TIMES
