Uptick in S'pore shares despite sell-offs across Asia, Wall Street

Singapore shares gained a sliver of ground yesterday despite mounting inflation fears and the prospect of tightening monetary policies triggering sell-offs across Asia and Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended up a modest 0.13 per cent or 4.34 points at 3,237.02, with losers pipping gainers 233 to 231 on trade of 1.89 billion shares worth $960 million.

Wall Street's rally took a pause overnight, with the three major indexes ending lower as inflationary pressures came into focus.

Mr Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "Decent retail earnings were unable to send US stocks back into a record-setting mode as cost pressures remain elevated for the foreseeable future.

"The S&P 500 index looks like it is going to be stuck in a range until investors feel confident that the Fed didn't make a policy mistake and won't be forced to raise rates sooner."

Wall Street's dour sentiment left regional bourses mostly in the red.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 1.3 per cent, the Kospi in South Korea declined 0.5 per cent, Kuala Lumpur's stocks were down 0.1 per cent and the Jakarta Composite slipped 0.6 per cent.

Australian shares defied the mood, closing up 0.1 per cent.

The STI's best performers were Keppel Corporation and Venture.

Keppel gained 0.9 per cent to $5.35 while Venture was up 0.9 per cent to $19.30.

Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust was at the bottom of the table after falling 1.3 per cent to $1.48.

Genting Singapore was the most active counter on the blue-chip index with 25.9 million shares changing hands. Its shares rose 0.6 per cent to 83.5 cents.

DBS led gains among the trio of local banks, edging up 0.8 per cent to $32.47. UOB gained 0.2 per cent to $27.64 while OCBC was unchanged at $11.81.