Singapore shares end flat ahead of Fed’s rate decision

SINGAPORE – Local shares were little changed on Wednesday as investors here and elsewhere stayed cautious ahead of an impending decision on United States interest rates.

The wary mood left the Straits Times Index up just 0.04 per cent, or 1.25 points, to 3,242 at the closing bell, with decliners pipping gainers 259 to 250 on trade of 1.2 billion shares worth $762.2 million.

At least that modest rise was a better result than other key markets in the region, which were mostly a sea of red after all three key indexes in New York fell by around 0.2 per cent overnight on fears of a possible interest rate hike.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.62 per cent while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo slipped 0.66 per cent, and Shanghai shares dropped 0.5 per cent, much the same as the bourse in Australia. The one outlier was the Kospi in Seoul, which added a marginal 0.02 per cent.

The United States Federal Reserve will release a summary of economic projections together with its decision on policy rates after its meeting this week.

Ms Peggy Mak, research manager at Phillip Securities Research, said the market remains on edge with the impending Fed rate decision, and will be scrutinising the central bank’s statement for signs of weakness in the American economy.

Back in Singapore, ST Engineering rose by 0.5 per cent to end the day at $3.87. The company’s aerospace segment does not perform work on Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines, and could stand to gain if industry demand switches to other engine types due to concerns over P&W engine flaws, said Ms Mak.

Mainboard-listed nanotechnology solutions provider Nanofilm Technologies slipped under $1 this week, closing down 1 per cent to 98.5 cents on Wednesday.

Seatrium, formerly Sembcorp Marine, was the most actively traded counter, with 237.5 million shares done as the maritime and new energy engineering solutions provider closed flat at 13.6 cents.

THE BUSINESS TIMES