It would have seemed improbable a week ago but local shares have racked up significant gains in recent days to defy the doomsayers.
The Straits Times Index (STI) kept up the momentum to record its fourth day of increase yesterday, ending the trading week up 49.5 points or 1.92 per cent at 2,624.23.
This made for a 4.2 per cent increase in the course of the week. Today is Labour Day, a trading holiday.
Markets have been excited by the prospect of a Covid-19 treatment.
Sats, which recently did a bond issue on a private-placement basis to address its cash-crunch concerns, was the best STI performer, rising 6.84 per cent to $3.28.
ComfortDelGro added 6.45 per cent to $1.65. The company has launched a dedicated delivery service by tying up with food and beverage outlets so that taxi drivers, faced with dwindling passenger numbers, are still earning.
DBS Group closed up 3.96 per cent at $19.96, a seven-week peak, while logging its best session since March 25, after the lender retained its quarterly dividend and flagged a stable annual outlook.
STI's main laggard was Thai Beverage, which shed 2.13 per cent to 69 cents, correcting from a steady rally that began in late March.
In all, gainers outnumbered losers 312 to 113, with 1.58 billion shares worth $2.44 billion changing hands - double the trading value on Wednesday.
The most active was Singtel after the Government provisionally awarded the 5G spectrum to the telco and a StarHub-M1 joint venture.
RHB and OCBC Investment Research continued to name Singtel as their preferred pick, with buy ratings maintained at target prices of $3.30 and $3.61 respectively. The shares added 1.07 per cent to $2.83 yesterday.
All Asian markets finished positive, with India the star performer.
Japan's Nikkei added 2.14 per cent and Shanghai gained 1.2 per cent while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.7 per cent.
Australian stocks rose 1.8 per cent and Malaysia added nearly 2 per cent to close the month more than 4 per cent higher - its best monthly performance since July 2018.
Indonesia's benchmark closed over 3 per cent higher, posting its first monthly gain this year.
"It is reasonable for markets to be less bearish than in mid-March... but it's far too early for a sustained rally in risk appetite, so we're probably due for a little bit of a pullback," said Westpac FX analyst Sean Callow.
• Additional reporting by Reuters and Nytimes
