SINGAPORE - Local shares ended a rocky week in the red on Friday after tracking losses across the region and a downbeat session on Wall Street overnight.
Stocks headed south after United States Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned on Thursday that he “will not hesitate” to hike interest rates further in his quest to bring inflation to heel.
The Straits Times Index (STI) responded by falling 0.9 per cent, or 28.64 points, to 3,106.68, with losers outnumbering gainers 356 to 233 on trade of one billion securities worth $816.4 million.
Most STI constituents ended in the red, with property investment manager CapitaLand Investment the biggest decliner, falling 3 per cent to close at $2.94.
Others in the deficit column included property developer Hongkong Land, slipping 2.7 per cent to US$3.23, and DFI Retail Group, down 2.1 per cent to US$2.30.
The STI’s biggest gainer was spirits company Emperador, which rose 2 per cent to 51 cents.
Seatrium was the most actively traded by volume, with 146.5 million shares worth $15.8 million changing hands.
Regional markets were mostly in the red. Major indexes, including those in Australia, South Korea, Shanghai and Hong Kong, all ended the day lower.
Mr Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management, said shares in Asia will have “a similar sinking feeling” in response to the drop in US stocks.
He added that investors in Asia are facing steady declines after Mr Powell’s speech on Thursday halted the rally in stocks and bonds.
“With the Fed seemingly still erring on the side of doing too much versus too little, this can, temporarily at least, sink some boats as rate-cut probability could start to vaporise along the curve,” he said.
“To what degree the market will eventually consider these as actionable or boilerplate comments is very important, but only time will tell as the economic data has yet to bear out.” THE BUSINESS TIMES
