SINGAPORE - Singapore stocks ended slightly lower on Friday, as persistent inflation and rate hikes continued to weigh on investor sentiment throughout the week.
The Straits Times Index (STI) slid 0.1 per cent or 2.88 points to 3,232.02. On the wider bourse, gainers outnumbered losers 282 to 230, after 2.6 billion securities worth $1.2 billion changed hands.
Mr Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that the upside to inflation figures in the United States had shifted market worries “rapidly” from recession to overheating, and challenged many of the trends that prevailed in January.
Mr Innes said: “Until it is clear that the US Federal Reserve has broken the back of inflation, it will remain difficult for risk markets to rally substantially, absent a clear deflationary signal.”
Regional markets were largely up on Friday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.7 per cent, the Nikkei 225 Index climbed 1.6 per cent, while the Kospi Composite Index gained 0.2 per cent. Bucking the trend, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index slid 0.1 per cent.
In Singapore, Thai Beverage was the day’s top gainer on the STI. It rose 2.3 per cent to 65.5 cents.
On the opposite end, DFI Retail Group was the index’s biggest decliner, falling 5.3 per cent to US$3.07. On Thursday, the group posted a 72 per cent year-on-year decline in underlying earnings for the fiscal year to December 2022.
The trio of local banks traded mixed on Friday. DBS fell 0.2 per cent to $33.50 and UOB lost 0.4 per cent to $29.54, while OCBC gained 0.6 per cent to $12.50. THE BUSINESS TIMES
