Bulls and bears
STI flat as cheer from US-China trade deal fades
Positive data from both countries also fails to excite most Asian markets
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Exuberance from the US-China trade deal largely wore off yesterday while positive data from both countries failed to excite.
The downbeat mood left Asian equities mixed: Hong Kong, Japan and Australia ended higher, South Korea and Shanghai were flat while Shenzhen stocks slipped.
Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) closed flat at 3,281.03 - having added just 3.03 points or 0.09 per cent - but at least advanced 0.8 per cent for the week.
Second liners drew more interest, while advancers significantly outnumbered decliners 258 to 167 despite the STI's muted performance. Total turnover was unusually high at 2.07 billion shares but total value was just $1.06 billion.
Some news items that investors mulled over included better US retail sales for December and China's 2019 gross domestic product expanding in line with expectations.
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports posted the first expansion in nine months, up 2.4 per cent year on year in December.
"The latest slew of economic data suggests that the global economy is stabilising and poised for a recovery amid de-escalating US-China trade tensions," said FXTM market analyst Han Tan.
"Such an environment should also offer emerging markets the chance to find a more stable footing and provide room for riskier assets to advance higher."
He added that investors can be cautiously optimistic, "knowing that major risks have considerably subsided for the time being".
Phosphate miner AsiaPhos was the top traded counter, surging 68 per cent to 4.7 cents, with 138.6 million shares changing hands.
It was followed by Golden Agri-Resources, which closed flat at 23.5 cents, on turnover of 133.5 million shares.
Breadtalk Group slipped 6.52 per cent to 64.5 cents after diving up to 8.7 per cent earlier in the day. This came after the company flagged an expected net loss for 2019.
Rex International rose 6.08 per cent to 19.2 cents on news that its unit Lime Petroleum had clinched stakes of 20 per cent and 30 per cent in two new offshore licences in the Norwegian Sea.
Singtel remained actively traded after its associate Bharti Airtel lost a court petition over revenue due to the Indian government.
Airtel will have to pay US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) by Jan 24, but could benefit from the potential exit of rival Vodafone Idea, which will struggle to pay its dues of about US$7.5 billion, DBS analyst Sachin Mittal noted yesterday.
Singtel fell 0.9 per cent to $3.30.
