Singapore stocks rise despite Fed rate hike; STI up 0.2%
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered decliners 290 to 272 after 1.2 billion securities worth $890.5 million were traded.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – The decision overnight by the Federal Reserve to hike United States rates
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 7.17 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,269.18, tracking the performance in regional markets, which mostly ended flat or higher.
Gainers outnumbered decliners 290 to 272 after 1.2 billion shares worth $890.5 million were traded.
Elsewhere, the Shanghai Composite added 0.8 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.3 per cent, while South Korea’s Kospi ended little changed. Australian stocks also closed flat, with most sectors in the black, which offset big hits to the local banks.
The US Fed hiked rates by an expected 25 basis points on Wednesday, but also signalled that a pause may be imminent.
However, Wall Street slipped as comments by Fed chairman Jerome Powell dimmed investor hopes of an imminent cut. The fallout left the S&P 500 off 0.7 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq, 0.5 per cent.
Oanda senior market analyst Kelvin Wong noted there were robust performances on Asian indexes despite the Wall Street decline.
“The broad-based US-dollar weakness led to a drop in the US dollar/offshore yuan... which implied a lower cost of funding on US dollar-denominated corporation debts in Asia,” he said.
Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust led the STI gainers, climbing 2.3 per cent to $1.36.
Other real estate investment trusts (Reits), including Mapletree Logistics Trust, CapitaLand Ascendas Reit and Keppel DC Reit, were among the gainers, rising between 0.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent.
Jardine Matheson Holdings ended at the bottom of the STI table, slipping 1 per cent to US$48.64.
Watch-listed SMI Vantage was among the most actively traded by volume. It rose 15.9 per cent to close at five cents after 33.7 million shares changed hands. THE BUSINESS TIMES
