STI slides 1.01% as risk aversion mounts on economic fears
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The losses were led by falls in all three Singapore banks DBS, UOB and OCBC Bank as well as Golden Agri-Resources and Singtel.
PHOTO: BUSINESS TIMES FILE
Renald Yeo
SINGAPORE - Gloomy news on several fronts – from a wave of central bank rate hikes to weak domestic economic data and falls on Wall Street overnight – rattled investors and sent local shares down on Friday.
The key Straits Times Index tumbled 32.94 points, or 1.01 per cent, to 3,240.81 to cap a roller-coaster week that left the index down a marginal 0.015 per cent.
Losers outnumbered gainers 264 to 251 on trade of 1.72 billion units worth $1.66 million.
SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said investors are trying to “determine if the collapse in risk sentiment is part of a larger and more complex darker economic issue”, adding that they “will now need to deal with a hawkish send-off to 2022 that could last well into 2023”.
The STI losses were led by falls in DBS Group Holdings, UOB and OCBC Bank, as well as Golden Agri-Resources and Singtel.
Singapore Post said it will raise postage, package and doorstep parcel delivery rates from Jan 1 in line with the Government’s goods and services tax hikes and “exceptional inflationary cost increases across manpower, fuel and electricity”. SingPost shares finished the day at 53.5 cents, up 4.9 per cent.
Aspen (Group) Holdings announced on Thursday night that its glove-making unit will sell its interest in a leased site in Malaysia and the factory built on it for 200 million ringgit (S$61.4 million) to “unlock value and realise cash”. Aspen had originally agreed to sell the land and factory to another buyer in October, but the deal was scrapped in early December due to non-fulfilment of certain conditions. The counter inched up 8.82 per cent to 3.7 cents.
Markets elsewhere in the region were mostly down on Friday after Wall Street endured its worst day since September.
The S&P 500 lost 2.5 per cent, the technology-focused Nasdaq plunged 3.2 per cent and Dow Jones dropped 2.3 per cent.
The exception in the region was the Hang Seng in Hong Kong, which inched up 0.4 per cent. THE BUSINESS TIMES
