Singapore stocks track regional market gains; STI up 0.4%

Local telco Singtel is the most actively traded counter on the STI by volume. It ends the day at S$4.26, 0.2% up

Local shares ended Monday (Nov 3) higher, tracking gains across regional markets.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 15.71 points to close at 4,444.33. Meanwhile, the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index lost 0.2 per cent or 2.61 points to 1,448.57.

Across the broader market, advancers outnumbered decliners 348 to 227, with 1.7 billion securities worth S$1.6 billion having changed hands.

Jardine Matheson was the day’s top blue-chip gainer, rising 3.4 per cent or US$2 to US$60.75.

DFI Retail Group was the index’s biggest decliner, falling 3.1 per cent or US$0.11 to US$3.40.

The three local banks ended mixed on Monday. UOB was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.18 at S$34.85. OCBC rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$17.07. However, DBS fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.14 to finish at S$53.79.

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Local telco Singtel was the most actively traded counter on the STI by volume, with 33.5 million units worth S$143.3 million traded. The counter rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 to S$4.26. Earlier in the day, Stephen Rue, the chief executive of Australian telco Optus, which is owned by Singtel, announced that he does not plan to step down following September’s outage, in which four people died because they could not reach emergency services.

Key indices in the region closed higher. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.8 per cent to close at a new high, Australia’s ASX 200 gained 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1 per cent.

Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management, said that while company earnings are growing, the market’s focus is no longer on earnings beats but on the quality of the growth and the sustainability of the margins.

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He said: “Traders know the difference between a cyclical bump and a structural one, and what they’re seeing looks like a plateau dressed as a peak.”