
STI Opens Flat Amid Cautious Trade; UOB Leads Early Gains
Turnover stood at 276.14 million securities worth S$303.33 million, with 131 counters rising, 104 declining and the rest unchanged.
Among blue chips, United Overseas Bank (UOB) led early gains, rising 0.64 per cent to S$35.93. Other actively traded stocks included DBS at S$50.96, OCBC Bank at S$16.91 and Singtel at S$3.94.
Industrial names were mixed, with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding flat at S$2.89, Sembcorp Industries steady at S$6.53 and Singapore Airlines unchanged at S$6.55.
Key sector indices also showed a muted start, with the iEdge S-REIT Leaders Index at 1,067.45 and the iEdge Southeast Asia+ Tech Index at 4,473.09.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
4 days ago
- The Star
DBS sees rising demand for yuan settlements from Chinese exporters
A customer walks past automated teller machines (ATM) at a DBS Group Holdings Ltd. bank branch in Singapore, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. - Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/Bloomberg SINGAPORE: DBS Group, Southeast Asia's largest lender by assets, is seeing growing interest from Chinese exporters to settle trades in renminbi (RMB), or yuan, particularly with counterparts in Latin America and the Middle East, a senior executive said. "Right now, you see the Chinese exporters, some are beginning to ask and say, I'm going to sell in RMB, please settle in RMB," said Han Kwee Juan, speaking to Reuters in his first media interview since becoming DBS's group head of institutional banking in January. "Is that a trend that will continue? I think that it's something that they will continue to ask for as they trade more with the rest of the world, outside of the U.S.," he said. The shift comes as decades of unwavering faith in the U.S. dollar's dominance in global trade and capital flows faces scrutiny. Major emerging market economies are stepping up efforts to trade in local currencies, underscoring efforts to reduce reliance on the dollar in the global financial system. However, Han said that most settlements outside of China remain "largely in dollars". The bank's subsidiary, DBS China, has been a member of China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) since 2015. China launched CIPS in 2015 to promote the yuan's usage in international trade. It allows global banks to clear cross-border yuan transactions directly onshore, instead of through clearing banks in offshore yuan hubs. DBS's settlement flows through the CIPS clearing system grew 30% year-on-year in 2024, Han said, though he maintained that the shift toward more yuan-denominated settlements remains gradual. In a wide-ranging interview, Han spoke of how businesses are dealing with the uncertainty over Trump's tariffs and outlined DBS's growth strategy in the current economic environment. "One of the things that we have been growing this year is we have been growing our capability for FI clearing," he said. "We have been quite purposeful in terms of investment that we have made in the clearing capabilities." The bank is also looking to capitalise on its institutional banking business to drive its return on equity, which currently stands at 17%, Han said. Last week, DBS posted a quarterly profit that beat estimates, sending its shares to a record high. "By being able to work with the customers holistically, not just with lending, but also with advisory and as well as cash management, enables us to not only just look at lending or (net interest income) as a source of revenue, but really growing our fee-based revenues," Han said. - Reuters


The Star
6 days ago
- The Star
Domestic markets face volatile fund flows
PETALING JAYA: Fund flows into local capital markets are expected to remain volatile as investors focus on looming US sectoral tariffs on Malaysia's pharmaceutical and semiconductor goods. United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd (UOB) expects capital flows into Malaysia and other emerging markets to remain volatile, with investors continuing to rotate their funds across sectors based on each country's resilience to US tariffs and shifts in trade policy. UOB said investor attention is now turning to sector-specific levies by the United States and a potential 10% surcharge on Brics member countries and their allies. 'Other key near-term issues include US-China trade negotiations, the US Federal Reserve's policy independence and its rate trajectory,' UOB said in a research note. UOB added that lingering tariff and trade uncertainties would continue to weigh on the ringgit till the end of the year before the currency regains strength from the first quarter of next year (1Q26). UOB projects the ringgit strengthening against the US dollar to RM4.19 in 2Q26 from RM4.20 in 1Q26 and RM4.23 in 4Q25 and RM4.27 in 3Q25. Analysts noted that July was the second consecutive month foreign investors continued to pare their holdings of Malaysian equities and debt. In its weekly fund-flow report, MBSB Research said foreign fund outflows from Bursa Malaysia in July had extended into August. In the week ended Aug 8, foreign investors extended their net selling of Malaysian equities to fifth consecutive week, registering a net outflow of RM1.14bil. This was three times higher than the previous week's outflow of RM378.1mil. Foreign investors were net sellers on every trading day, with outflows ranging from RM145.6mil to RM318.1mil. 'The largest outflow was recorded last Tuesday, followed by last Thursday with RM291mil, last Monday with RM205.7mil and last Wednesday with RM174.7mil, while last Friday recorded the smallest outflow. 'The only two sectors that recorded net foreign inflows last week were industrial products and services (RM62.7mil) and transportation and logistics (RM36.2mil). 'The top three sectors that recorded the highest net foreign outflows were financial services (RM344.3mil), healthcare (RM239.1mil) and utilities (RM210.2mil),' said MBSB Research. The selling pressure is also present in bonds. Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB) said moderate selling of ringgit bonds continued in July for a second consecutive month, driven in part by a rebound in the greenback. Outflows totalled RM5.5bil from June's RM5.4bil, although on a year-to-date basis, flows stayed positive at RM15.9bil from a peak of RM26.9bil in May. Maybank IB said foreign holdings of Malaysian Government Securities and Government Investment Issues eased to 21.1% in July from 21.8% in June, while across Asean the picture was mixed, with Indonesia attracting inflows and Thailand experiencing outflows.


BusinessToday
6 days ago
- BusinessToday
STI Opens Flat Amid Cautious Trade; UOB Leads Early Gains
The Straits Times Index (STI) edged up 0.16 points to 4,239.99 as of 9.26 am on Monday, with market sentiment appearing cautious despite more advancers than decliners in early trade. Turnover stood at 276.14 million securities worth S$303.33 million, with 131 counters rising, 104 declining and the rest unchanged. Among blue chips, United Overseas Bank (UOB) led early gains, rising 0.64 per cent to S$35.93. Other actively traded stocks included DBS at S$50.96, OCBC Bank at S$16.91 and Singtel at S$3.94. Industrial names were mixed, with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding flat at S$2.89, Sembcorp Industries steady at S$6.53 and Singapore Airlines unchanged at S$6.55. Key sector indices also showed a muted start, with the iEdge S-REIT Leaders Index at 1,067.45 and the iEdge Southeast Asia+ Tech Index at 4,473.09.