STI down 0.6% as Asia equities tumble on China lockdowns

Singapore stocks dipped yesterday, even as Asian markets took a tumble amid news of China tightening Covid-19 restrictions in Shanghai and imposing restrictions in a district in Beijing.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) moved down 0.6 per cent or 21.52 points to 3,339.59, while major indexes in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea fell between 1.8 per cent and 3.7 per cent.

Malaysia's Bursa and Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index ended 0.8 and 0.1 per cent lower respectively. Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley attributed the Asean triad's resilience to their "heavy weighting of old school resources and banking heavyweights".

The three countries "seem to be gaining some defensive flows at the expense of the North Asia heavyweights", he said, while noting that the latter were in "full retreat" as China stimulus remains "high on talk, and very short on action, other than weakening the currency".

Among STI constituents, inflight caterer and ground handler Sats was the biggest gainer, closing 2.7 per cent or $0.12 higher at $4.59.

Trailing behind was telco Singtel, which closed 1.1 per cent or $0.03 higher at $2.69.

Finishing at the bottom of the STI performance table were Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which shed 4.7 per cent or $0.045 to close at $0.92, and HongkongLand, which lost 2.3 per cent or US$0.11 to close at US$4.60.

The trio of local banks were also among the decliners.

UOB and OCBC Bank slipped 1.1 and 1 per cent respectively to close at $30.78 and $11.99, while DBS Bank fell 0.7 per cent to $33.40.

Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 356 to 158 after 1.57 billion securities worth $1.43 billion changed hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine, which closed 0.8 per cent or $0.001 lower at $0.122 after some 209.4 million of its shares worth $25.8 million were traded.