Singapore stocks up for consecutive day; STI rises 0.2%

There were few viable leads for investors to grasp on Nov 15 after the US Federal Reserve opted for a slow and steady approach to interest rate cuts, but local shares still managed to rise for the second straight day.

The optimistic mood, such as it was, left the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) up 0.2 per cent or 6.54 points to 3,744.7, with losers beating gainers 319 to 254 on trade of 1.2 billion securities worth $1.3 billion.

Wall Street set a muted tone overnight after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said it would take its time in deciding how quickly to lower interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all edged down in response, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each losing 0.6 per cent, the biggest decline of the month.

Key regional indexes were varied. Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 0.3 per cent higher, while the Kospi in South Korea dipped 0.1 per cent, Malaysian shares lost 0.5 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended flat. The Australian bourse added 0.74 per cent to end the week marginally up.

Eastspring Investments chief investment officer Vis Nayar said recent stimulus from China has seen equity markets “rally spectacularly” from the third to fourth quarter, although this followed a “pretty disappointing” preceding couple of years for stock prices.

Back home, the STI was dragged back by real estate investment trust CapitaLand Ascendas Reit, which fell 1.9 per cent to $2.57. This comes after it announced that it will acquire a land parcel in the US to develop into a logistics property for about $94.8 million.

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The top performer was technology service provider Venture Corp, which rose 3.1 per cent to $12.79.

The trio of local lenders ended the week mixed: DBS Bank fell 0.2 per cent to $42.94; OCBC Bank slid 0.2 per cent to $16.44; and UOB rose 1 per cent to $36.37.

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