Singapore shares slide 2.18% to 9-week low on fresh virus curbs

The Straits Times Index (STI) nosedived over 3 per cent during intra-day trading yesterday as fresh curbs to fight rising Covid-19 cases raised the spectre of gloomy prospects for the mending economy.

The STI plunged the most in nearly a year - by 68.24 points, or 2.18 per cent, to finish at a nine-week low of 3,055.02.

The losses made the local bourse an outlier in the region as its major peers ended the week on a higher note following modest gains overnight in Wall Street as inflation worries eased.

Week on week, the STI has lost 145.2 points, or 4.5 per cent.

The emergence of major clusters at the airport and a local hospital, which prompted the latest round of curbs, serves as a stark reminder of how delicate the recovery from the pandemic is, albeit fortified by the ongoing vaccine roll-out.

In the broader market, decliners outpaced gainers 467 to 127, with 3.52 billion units worth $3.22 billion changing hands.

Singtel retreated nine cents, or 3.7 per cent, to $2.32 and was the day's seventh-most actively traded, with 72 million shares worth $168 million done. The telco said yesterday morning that it was launching a strategic review of two key units and warned that its results for the second half and full year ended March are expected to include net exceptional losses of $839 million and $1.21 billion, respectively, owing to impairments.

Frencken Group closed unchanged at $1.42. The company released a stellar first-quarter update earlier this week on better product mix and margins. DBS Group Research issued a buy rating on the counter with a 12-month target price of $1.98 given its resilient earnings, thanks to its diversified portfolio, and higher contribution from the semiconductor segment.