STI gains ground on April 16, bucking regional indexes

SINGAPORE – Local shares managed to buck regional trends and a negative session on Wall Street overnight to record modest if welcome gains on April 16. The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 1 per cent or 37.73 points ahead at 3,662.45, although losers just outnumbered gainers 277 to 268 after 1.3 billion shares worth $1.5 billion changed hands.

The local banks continued to recoup recent losses: DBS Bank put on 0.4 per cent to $40.10; OCBC Bank 0.6 per cent to $15.67; and UOB 0.6 per cent to $34.13. The STI’s top gainer was DFI Retail Group, up 4.2 per cent to US$2.24, while Venture was the biggest loser, down 0.7 per cent to $10.76.

Major regional indexes closed lower. The Kospi in Seoul fell 1.2 per cent, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1 per cent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dived 1.9 per cent and Malaysian shares fell 0.6 per cent. The ASX 200 in Sydney closed flat despite bullish sentiment around gold mining stocks in the wake of the metal hitting a record high.

The downbeat results followed lacklustre trading on Wall Street where the three indexes edged lower on lingering concerns over the Trump trade policies. The Dow industrials fell 0.4 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq dipped 0.1 per cent.

Mr Jamie Hannah, VanEck’s deputy head of investments and capital markets, told Australian media that markets are in a holding pattern: “We’re really waiting to see how the US pans out with all the policy changes in the US, so the market is having a bit of a breather at the moment.

“The US has announced tariffs on nearly every major country on earth, so there’s a lot of discussions to take place. I don’t think every country will be able to win huge reprieves from the tariffs, so I think we need to see the winners and losers out of all this.” THE BUSINESS TIMES