STI closes flat, even as Wall Street rally lifts most Asian bourses

The local market was left out in the cold yesterday, while most of its key Asian peers posted gains on the back of Wall Street closing at record highs overnight.

Inertia seemed to engulf proceedings, with the Straits Times Index (STI) ending 0.13 points lower at 3,107.49. Yet, gainers well outpaced losers 300 to 176 on the broader market, with turnover of 1.47 billion shares worth $1.02 billion changing hands.

Much attention was on Union Gas, which jumped on yesterday's announcement of its proposal to acquire its substantial shareholder's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution, bottling and storage businesses for $75 million.

The counter closed 23.9 per cent higher at 98.5 cents.

The deal could double Union Gas' earnings per share to 12.64 cents from 6.06 cents if it goes through, the company stated.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was one of the most active stocks on the STI, surging 3.12 per cent to $1.65 on trade of 113 million shares.

, thanks to the impressive rally on Wall Street overnight.

The S&P 500 added 0.15 per cent to mark its 50th record close this year. The Dow put on 0.1 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.5 per cent to close above 15,000 points for the first time.

Trading activity in the region was fairly muted ahead of the United States Federal Reserve symposium at Jackson Hole in Wyoming tomorrow.

Investors on Wall Street are likely to hold their fire for the next day or two until they get a handle on what the Fed is thinking, especially on its bond-buying programme.

Both the Shanghai Composite and South Korea's Kospi closed higher, at 0.74 per cent and 0.27 per cent respectively. But Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped 0.03 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.13 per cent.

The ASX 200 in Australia finished higher for the third straight day, helped by stellar performances by some fintechs and robust prices for commodities.