Singapore stocks slip as precious metals rout deepens; STI down 0.3%
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The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 12.86 points to close at 4,892.27.
ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI
Renald Yeo
- Singapore's STI declined 0.3% to 4,892.27, mirroring regional market downturns, with losers outpacing gainers.
- Precious metals faced a sharp sell-off; spot silver plummeted 27.6% and gold dropped 11% over three days.
- Jardine Matheson rose 1.3% but Hongkong Land slid 2.5%; local banks showed mixed performance, UOB gained while DBS and OCBC fell.
AI generated
SINGAPORE - Singapore stocks ended lower on Feb 2, tracking regional peers amid a sharp sell-off in precious metals that extended from the previous week.
The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.3 per cent, or 12.86 points, to close at 4,892.27. The iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index declined 0.4 per cent, or 5.48 points, to 1,496.09.
Across the broader market, gainers trailed losers 200 to 453, with 1.6 billion securities worth $2.1 billion traded.
Regional markets also ended in the red.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 2.2 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 1.3 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi fell 5.3 per cent.
The declines came as the precious metals rout intensified.
Spot silver prices were down 19 per cent on Monday and 27.6 per cent over the past three days, Bloomberg data showed as at 5.45pm.
Spot gold prices fell 8.3 per cent and 11 per cent over the same periods.
“Things just got too frothy – this was like crypto markets at their worst; a massively crowded and leveraged long bet, and volatility that fed on itself as market makers couldn’t quote prices, leaving liquidity an issue,” said Mr Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, in a Feb 2 note.
On the benchmark STI, Jardine Matheson was the top gainer, rising 1.3 per cent, or 93 US cents, to US$73.70. Hongkong Land was the index’s worst performer, sliding 2.5 per cent, or 21 US cents, to US$8.28.
The three local banks finished mixed. UOB gained 0.3 per cent, or 13 cents, to $38.40, while DBS fell 0.5 per cent, or 32 cents, to $58.88.
OCBC Bank slipped 0.6 per cent, or 13 cents, to $21.10.
