Singapore stocks rise on positive sentiment amid regional rally; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE – A touch more optimism on Wall Street over interest rates perked up regional traders and sent shares higher on April 4.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 12.35 points on the positive sentiment to 3,235.01, with gainers outstripping losers 226 to 174 after 1.07 billion securities worth $1 billion changed hands.

Regional indexes were in the black as well after New York set the pace overnight with the S&P 500 inching up 0.1 per cent after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell bolstered hopes of rate cuts. The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.2 per cent, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3 per cent and Australian stocks rebounded after a mid-week dive to add 0.5 per cent. Hong Kong’s market was closed for a holiday.

Sembcorp Industries was the STI’s top performer, gaining 2.8 per cent to $5.53, while DFI Retail Group came in at the bottom, shedding 1.9 per cent to US$2.06.

The banks were mixed: OCBC Bank gained 1.2 per cent to $13.76, DBS Bank climbed 0.6 per cent to $36.32, but UOB fell 0.2 per cent to $29.46.

The question hovering over markets is, as ever, the direction of US interest rates.

Investors there may be having some doubts that rates will be cut as expected with economic data remaining firm.

UOB analysts said on April 3: “Amid the ‘bumpy’ ride in inflation and the latest string of stronger-than-expected (data), investors have started to question whether the Fed is indeed able to start rate cuts in June and whether it will be able to deliver the three cuts this year.”

Still, the UOB team continues to expect three 25-basis-point cuts in 2024, starting in June.

“Subsequent inflation and job market figures for April and May will be critically important,” they added.

THE BUSINESS TIMES