Singapore stocks track regional declines on July 25; STI down 0.9%

SINGAPORE – Local shares went south on July 25 in line with regional markets and the tech sector bloodletting on Wall Street overnight.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.9 per cent, or 30.37 points, to 3,430.45, with losers outstripping gainers 372 to 220 on trade of 1.1 billion securities worth $1.2 billion.

The downbeat tone was set by Wall Street, where the seven mega tech shares nosedived and sent the Nasdaq plunging 3.6 per cent – its worst outcome in 400 trading days. The carnage also hit the S&P 500, which fell 2.3 per cent – its biggest decline since December 2022 – while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.2 per cent.

Ms Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, noted that underwhelming results from electric car giant Tesla and Google’s Alphabet painted US equity markets red overnight. She added that rising expectations for interest rate cuts in the US are also not positive for the Big Tech stocks, as these behemoths were seen as a safe place to hide when the rates were high, and their advance could wane due to a sector rotation.

Therefore, a tech sell-off – combined with lower interest rates – is expected to boost appetites for small caps and the dullest pockets of the market such as consumer staples, healthcare and utilities, she said.

It was no surprise that key regional indexes followed Wall Street’s lead. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 3.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.8 per cent, the Kospi in Seoul dropped 1.7 per cent, Malaysian shares dipped 0.4 per cent and Australian stocks dived 1.3 per cent to a two-week low.

Seatrium was the STI’s biggest decliner, falling 3.3 per cent to $1.47, while Venture Corp was the top gainer, up 0.7 per cent to $15.

The three local banks ended lower. DBS Bank fell 0.5 per cent to $36.54, OCBC Bank lost 1.5 per cent to $14.89, and UOB was down 1.2 per cent to $32.50.

THE BUSINESS TIMES