SINGAPORE - Singapore shares rode on the Wall Street rally last Friday to start the week on an upbeat note, with the blue-chip barometer Straits Times Index (STI) rising 22.71 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 3,189.01 points at market close on Monday.
The momentum, however, was tempered after the first trading hour, with some of the gains being clawed back.
A mixed jobs report in the United States lifted hopes that the Federal Reserve will hold off hiking interest rates in June. The report, combined with news that Washington had finally passed a debt ceiling deal to avert a catastrophic default, helped propel Wall Street indexes higher.
Mr Kelvin Wong, Oanda’s senior market analyst for the Asia-Pacific, pointed out that an impending global recession cannot be ruled out nonetheless, as the US Treasury yield curve has been mostly inverted in almost 42 years, with the difference between the 10-year and two-year yields now at negative 81 basis points.
Keppel DC Reit, which is making an exit from the STI after a quarterly review of the benchmark, posted the biggest decline among the 30 index stocks, with a 2.9 per cent dip to $2.04.
This was despite the data centres-focused real estate investment trust being the top-performing Singapore-listed Reit in the year to last week, recording 21.1 per cent in total returns, according to Singapore Exchange Research.
Offshore and marine stalwart Seatrium, formerly known as Sembcorp Marine, was the most active counter, with nearly 664 million shares having changed hands, as it is on the cusp of joining the STI in the place of Keppel DC Reit. Seatrium shares closed 4.1 per cent higher at 12.6 cents.
Gainers trumped decliners 294 to 233 in the broader market, with 1.83 billion securities worth a total of $1.45 billion transacted.
Most key markets in Asia traded higher at market close. THE BUSINESS TIMES
