STI inches down 0.27% as investors stay cautious

Local shares finished in the red yesterday as investors remained cautious despite the Singapore economy racking up quarterly growth for the first time since the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 8.51 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 3,179.39. But in the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 242 to 230 on trade of 1.53 billion shares worth $1.01 billion.

Despite the dip on the Singapore bourse, markets across the region were generally upbeat.

Malaysian shares inched up 0.04 per cent, the Hang Seng Index added 1.4 per cent and the Kospi gained 0.4 per cent. The Nikkei 225 bucked the trend, closing 0.4 per cent lower.

The overnight session on Wall Street ended with mixed results. The S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq added 1.1 per cent, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 per cent.

Mr Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi, noted that equity markets are "getting lots of support" from the broader macroeconomic backdrop.

"Early reads on earnings look promising, and this should be enough to see additional money chase the market higher," he said.

Tech names were among the biggest gainers here. Venture Corp came out tops, adding 1 per cent to finish at $20.43.

Creative Technology was another top gainer, rising 2.2 per cent to $2.77. Specialist component maker InnoTek finished the day at 85 cents, up 6.3 per cent.

At the other end of the scale, Jardine Matheson Holdings closed at US$64.87, down 0.3 per cent.

The lenders finished in the red. DBS Bank shed 0.5 per cent to $28.69, UOB fell 0.3 per cent to $25.96 and OCBC Bank lost 0.3 per cent to $11.80.

Jiutian Chemical was the most heavily traded, with 224.7 million shares done. The counter closed at 10.1 cents, up 1 per cent.