Bulls And Bears

S'pore stocks extend gains from last week

Tech counters as well as marine and oil-linked penny stocks hog limelight

Local shares kept up the momentum from last week with marine and energy-linked penny stocks enjoying a rare day in the spotlight alongside tech heavyweights.

The optimistic mood sent the Straits Times Index up 40.89 points, or 1.34 per cent to 3,093.38, with gainers beating losers 210 to 154 on trade of 1.6 billion shares worth $853.8 million.

Tech counters made their mark: Contract manufacturers Venture Corp rose 5.2 per cent to $15.49, while Hi-P International added an eye-catching 30.9 per cent to $1.06.

Consumer electronics maker Creative Technology had a more modest jump, up 3.4 per cent to $5.79.

The rally may be due to hopes that Cyber Monday deals will top the US$6.6 billion (S$9 billion) total last year. Market tracker Adobe Analytics predicts that online retailers will record US$7.8 billion in sales, making it America's single largest online shopping day.

Another driver could have been the surprise rebound in Singapore's October manufacturing data.

United Overseas Bank senior economist Alvin Liew said: "After a brief and slight contraction of minus 0.1 per cent year on year in September, industrial production rebounded smartly to record a 4.3 per cent year-on-year expansion in October, easily beating the Reuters' consensus estimates of 2.3 per cent and our forecast of minus 5.0 per cent."

Trading activity was dominated by counters like Ezion Holdings, up 7.5 per cent to 4.3 cents, Rex International, ahead 2.9 per cent to seven cents, and Vallianz, down 10 per cent to 0.9 cent, which racked up total turnover of 124 million shares. This came as oil clawed back losses from an 8 per cent fall on Friday.

Cityneon closed flat at $1.31 after independent financial adviser Novus Corporate Finance said the terms of the cash offer for existing shareholders at $1.30 per share are "fair and reasonable".

Keppel Corp was also flat at $6.16, after reporting that two of its data centre units will develop and run a project in Malaysia with a targeted 2020 completion date.

Most Asian markets rose yesterday amid anticipation of the weekend meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Buenos Aires.

One exception was in China, where Shanghai shares closed down 0.1 per cent. Analysts put this down to caution over whether there will be a trade agreement at the end of the G-20 meeting and a continued slump in oil prices despite a slight recovery yesterday.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 27, 2018, with the headline S'pore stocks extend gains from last week. Subscribe