Singapore stocks end lower amid mixed showing in regional markets
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The benchmark Straits Times Index ended 0.2 per cent or 6.6 points lower at 3,805.18.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Ranamita Chakraborty
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Stocks on the local bourse closed slightly lower on April 29 amid a mixed showing among regional markets.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) ended 0.2 per cent, or 6.6 points, lower at 3,805.18. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 259 to 214 after 968.57 million securities worth $1.33 billion changed hands.
The top gainer on the STI was Sembcorp Industries. The counter rose 2.6 per cent, or 17 cents, to $6.62. The biggest decliner was Wilmar International, which slid 3.8 per cent, or 12 cents, to $3.02.
The trio of local banks ended mixed. DBS Bank was down 0.5 per cent, or 22 cents, at $42.08 and UOB fell 0.2 per cent, or six cents, to finish at $34.36. OCBC Bank rose 1 per cent, or 15 cents, to $15.98.
Elsewhere in the region, key indexes ended mostly higher. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.9 per cent, the Kospi was up 0.7 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 0.2 per cent. However, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 0.4 per cent.
The mixed performance comes amid heightened market scrutiny of US-China tariff tensions. Blame and threats embedded in US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent remarks stymie a path to conciliatory US-China tariff talks, said Mr Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research at Mizuho Securities. He called Mr Bessent’s proposition that it is “up to China to de-escalate because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them” as “glaringly counterproductive, ascribing blame to Beijing”.
“Whereas Beijing may quite rightly assess that rushing to acquiesce the aggressor (on tariffs) inadvertently, but damningly, concedes the upper hand to Washington – a strategic error that Beijing will avoid,” added Mr Varathan.
He also said the European Central Bank (ECB) may be quicker than the US Federal Reserve to acknowledge the income shocks arising from tariffs. As a result, the ECB could adopt a more dovish stance sooner – potentially between mid-2025 and the third quarter of 2025 – thereby “creating a temporary window of Fed-ECB divergence”. THE BUSINESS TIMES
