STI inches up 0.1%, tracking US rally

SINGAPORE – Local shares continued their modest rally on June 19, following yet another record-setting session on Wall Street overnight. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new highs, with chip company Nvidia overtaking tech giant Microsoft as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.

There were no such heroics in Singapore, but at least the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.1 per cent, or 2.22 points, to close at 3,304. Gainers outnumbered losers 305 to 246 on trade of 1.2 billion shares worth $967 million.

The STI’s biggest gainer for the second consecutive day was consumer goods conglomerate Jardine Cycle & Carriage, which gained 1.5 per cent to $28.61. Property developer Hongkong Land recorded the biggest drop, falling 1.2 per cent to US$3.21.

Seatrium was the most actively traded counter by volume, with 49.8 million shares done. The counter dropped 0.7 per cent to $1.50.

Meanwhile, regional markets were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index set the pace, surging 2.9 per cent, while the Nikkei in Tokyo was up by 0.2 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi added 1.2 per cent. The Australian bourse ended flat after a late pickup.

Mr Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at trading platform IG, said economic data emerging from China continued to be mixed.

On the one hand, China’s retail sales were stronger than expected, said Mr Yeap, rising 3.7 per cent for May compared with 2.3 per cent in April. However, industrial production had “lost some steam”, with numbers showing that output in May grew 5.6 per cent year on year, down from a 6.7 per cent rise in April.

At the same time, China’s real estate sector had yet to recover, Mr Yeap added.

“If the trend in economic data disappoints further, it may send a warning sign for (China’s) growth and raise calls for more to be done to better achieve its growth target of around 5 per cent,” he said. THE BUSINESS TIMES