Singapore shares up 0.2% amid mixed regional showing
Losers put up a better fight than in the previous session but still trailed gainers 215 to 277 on solid trade 1.6 billion securities worth $1.2 billion.
SINGAPORE – Local shares edged up on July 3 amid a mixed showing by regional bourses and a record-breaking one on Wall Street overnight.
Investors here were keen to keep the party going after the 4,000-point breakthrough on Wednesday and nudged the Straits Times Index up 8.8 points or 0.2 per cent to 4,019.57.
Losers put up a better fight than in the previous session but still trailed gainers 215 to 277 on solid trade 1.6 billion securities worth $1.2 billion.
While there is a nervous wait on new US job figures, there was optimism here stemming from news that Vietnam became the first Asian country to
secure a trade deal with the US , although it still faces some hefty levies.
Only three countries have made trade pacts with the US, so investors are wary of more market turmoil if no deals are made by
the July 9 deadline that could trigger crippling new tariffs.
Meanwhile, Oiltek International rose 5.4 per cent to 59 cents after the vegetable and edible oil processing company announced that it is in talks to support a sustainable aviation fuel pilot plant programme in Sarawak, although no definitive agreements have been signed.
CapAllianz has been the most active counter this week. It finished flat at 0.003 cents, with 576.2 million shares traded.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July
Singapore PAP questions Pritam's interview with Malaysian podcast, says politics should stop at water's edge
World Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota dies in car crash in Spain
Sport Liverpool star Diogo Jota dead at 28: What you need to know about the footballer
Business 60 S'pore firms to get AI boost from Tata Consultancy as it launches a new innovation centre here
Singapore Scoot launches flights to Da Nang, Kota Bharu and Nha Trang; boosts frequency to other destinations
Singapore Electrician who bit off part of coworker's ear during fight gets 6 months' jail
Asia 4 dead, 30 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali
The Catalist-listed investment holding firm – which owns a tech company and 20 per cent stakes in oil concessions – staged a boardroom clear-out recently.
Regional markets had another mixed day. The Nikkei in Toyko rose 0.06 per cent while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slumped by the same amount. Seoul's Kospi surged 1.34 per cent but Malaysian stocks declined 0.08 per cent.
Australia's bourse closed a tad down on its record high on Wednesday as investors await those US job figures.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
36 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Do international carbon credits fight climate change?
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: A coal-fired power station scheduled to shut down is seen in As Pontes, Spain, February 8, 2022. Picture taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Miguel Vidal/File Photo BRUSSELS - The European Commission has proposed an EU climate target for 2040 that allows countries to count carbon credits bought from developing nations towards the EU goal for the first time. Here's what that means, and why the EU move on Wednesday faced criticism from campaigners and some scientists. WHAT ARE CARBON CREDITS? Carbon credits, or offsets, involve funding projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad in place of cuts to your own greenhouse gas emissions. Examples include forest restoration in Brazil, or converting a city's petrol buses to electric. The buyer counts "credits" for those emission reductions towards its climate goal, and the seller gets finance for their green project. Proponents say the system generates much-needed funding for CO2-cutting efforts in developing nations and lets countries work together to cut emissions around the world. However, the reputation of CO2 credits has been dented by a string of scandals in which credit-generating projects failed to deliver the climate benefits they claimed. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 193ha of land off Changi to be reclaimed for aviation park; area reduced to save seagrass meadow Business More Singapore residents met CPF Required Retirement Sum when they turned 55 in 2024 Singapore PAP questions Pritam's interview with Malaysian podcast, WP says PAP opposing for the sake of opposing Singapore 1 in 4 appeals to waive HDB wait-out period for private home owners approved since Sept 2022 Sport A true fans' player – Liverpool fans in Singapore pay tribute to the late Diogo Jota Singapore Healthcare facility planned for site of Ang Mo Kio Public Library after it moves to AMK Hub Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July Business 60 S'pore firms to get AI boost from Tata Consultancy as it launches new innovation centre here WHY IS THE EU BUYING THEM? The European Commission proposed allowing up to 3 percentage points of the EU's 2040 target - to cut net emissions by 90% from 1990 levels - to be covered by carbon credits bought from other countries. The EU's existing climate targets require countries to meet the goals entirely by cutting emissions at home. The bloc's executive Commission said last year it hoped the EU could agree a 90% emissions-cutting target for 2040, with no mention of carbon credits. Tumultuous geopolitics and the economic woes of European industries have since stoked political pushback, with governments from Germany to Poland demanding a softer target. In response, the Commission said it would add flexibilities, and landed on carbon credits as a way to retain a 90% emissions-cutting goal while reducing the domestic steps needed to reach it. EU countries and the European Parliament must negotiate and approve the goal. WHAT ARE THE RISKS? The EU plan was welcomed by countries including Germany, which had pushed to include carbon credits in the goal, and by carbon credit project developers as a boost for climate finance. But environmental campaigners said the EU was shirking domestic CO2-cutting efforts and warned against relying on cheap, low-value credits. The EU's climate science advisers had also opposed buying credits under the 2040 target, which they said would divert money from investments in local clean industries. The EU banned international credits from its own carbon market after a flood of cheap credits with weak environmental benefits contributed to a carbon price crash. To try to address the risks, the Commission said it would buy credits in line with a global market and rules for trading carbon credits which the U.N. is developing. These include quality standards aimed at avoiding the problems that unregulated credit trading has faced in recent years. Brussels will also propose rules next year on specific quality standards for the carbon credits the EU buys. HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? The EU doesn't yet know. Carbon credit prices today can be as low as a few dollars per tonne of CO2, up to more than $100, depending on the project. EU emissions records suggest the bloc would need to buy at least 140 million tonnes of CO2 emissions to cover 3% of the 2040 target, roughly equivalent to the Netherlands' total emissions last year. One senior Commission official said the bloc was determined not to hoover up cheap junk credits. "I don't think that would have any additional value. The credits we see currently on voluntary carbon markets are very, very cheap, and that probably reflects a lack of high environmental integrity," the senior official said. REUTERS
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Portuguese former prime minister Socrates goes on trial in graft case
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Portugal's former Prime Minister Jose Socrates holds his protective mask as he leaves the court in Lisbon, Portugal, April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo LISBON - Portuguese former Prime Minister Jose Socrates appeared before a court on Thursday on the first day of a long-delayed trial in which he faces charges of corruption that were reinstated after a judge had lifted them four years ago. Socrates, 67, who denies wrongdoing, and his lawyer wanted the trial suspended and the presiding judge replaced, but the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon rejected their demands. "Four years later, the state forces me to come to court again to respond to exactly the same charges," Socrates told reporters before entering the building, accusing the court of using the pretext of a clerical error to reinstate the charges and of manipulating the statute of limitations. "The investigating judge, four years ago, considered that none of the charges were substantiated, not a single one. And he also considered them to be completely time-barred." In 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa of Portugal's criminal court for preliminary hearings dismissed the corruption and tax fraud accusations against Socrates as weak, inconsistent or lacking sufficient evidence, and noted that the statute of limitations had run out on some of them. Socrates was still facing lesser charges of money laundering worth some 1.7 million euros and falsifying documents. A Socialist who served as prime minister in 2005-2011, Socrates was arrested at Lisbon's airport in November 2014 as part of Portugal's biggest-ever corruption investigation, codenamed Operation Marquis. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 193ha of land off Changi to be reclaimed for aviation park; area reduced to save seagrass meadow Business More Singapore residents met CPF Required Retirement Sum when they turned 55 in 2024 Singapore PAP questions Pritam's interview with Malaysian podcast, WP says PAP opposing for the sake of opposing Singapore 1 in 4 appeals to waive HDB wait-out period for private home owners approved since Sept 2022 World Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota dies in car crash in Spain Singapore Healthcare facility planned for site of Ang Mo Kio Public Library after it moves to AMK Hub Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July Business 60 S'pore firms to get AI boost from Tata Consultancy as it launches new innovation centre here It was the first time an ex-premier had been arrested in the country. He spent months in jail before being placed under house arrest. In a country notorious for its slow justice system, it took prosecutors three years following the arrest to formally charge Socrates with 31 offences allegedly committed in the 2006-2015 period. The statute of limitations on some of the offences has expired and in the new trial, Socrates is being tried for 22 offences, including passive corruption while in office, money laundering worth 34 million euros through the bank accounts of others abroad, and tax fraud. The alleged scheme involved the disgraced former heads of Banco Espirito Santo and Portugal Telecom, who have also denied wrongdoing. Socrates stepped down as prime minister in March 2011, halfway through his second term, after a debt crisis forced him to request an international bailout, leading to years of painful austerity. REUTERS
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Trump close to victory on flagship tax Bill
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The tax and spending Bill would be a major landmark in US President Donald Trump's political life, sealing his vision of US domestic policy into law. WASHINGTON - US lawmakers teed up a final vote on US President Donald Trump's marquee tax and spending Bill for the morning of July 3 after bruising Republican infighting nearly derailed the centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda. Almost 24 hours after debate began, Mr Trump appeared close to victory as Congress edged towards passing his 'One Big Beautiful Bill', despite misgivings in his party over a text that would balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net. The Bill would be a major landmark in Mr Trump's political life, sealing his vision of US domestic policy into law – and coming after he scored recent wins including in the Supreme Court and with US strikes that led to a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Speaker Mike Johnson struggled through the night to corral his rank-and-file Republican members after the package scraped through a series of 'test' votes in the House of Representatives that laid bare deep divisions in the party. It was on course for a final vote that would put it on Mr Trump's desk to be signed into law after passing its last procedural hurdle in the early hours of July 3 . 'We feel very good about where we are and we're moving forward,' an upbeat Mr Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. 'So we're going to deliver the Big, Beautiful Bill – the president's 'America First' agenda – and we're going to do right by the American people.' Funds for mass deportation The timetable could slip however as Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries continued a long speech opposing the Bill that delayed proceedings by several hours. Originally approved by the House in May, Mr Trump's sprawling legislation squeezed through the Senate on July 1 but had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of the senators' revisions. The package honors many of Mr Trump's campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing US$4.5 trillion (S$5.7 trillion) to extend his first-term tax relief. But it is expected to pile an extra US$3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country's fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food stamps program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch. While Republican moderates in the House are anxious that the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection, fiscal hawks chafed over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised. Mr Johnson has to negotiate tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who had declared themselves open to rejecting Mr Trump's Bill. 'Abomination' The 869-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed version further to the right. It offsets its tax relief with around US$1 trillion in health care cuts, and some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their insurance coverage under the bill at 17 million. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close. Mr Johnson had been clear that he was banking on Mr Trump leaning on waverers, as the president has in the past to turn around contentious House votes that were headed for failure. The Republican leader has spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath. 'FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!' Mr Trump, 79, thundered in one of multiple posts to his Truth Social platform as the July 2 marathon voting session spilled into July 3 . The Bill would underline Mr Trump's total dominance of the Republican Party in his second term, and comes as he relishes a major Supreme Court victory last week that curbed lone judges from blocking his radical policies. But House Democrats have signaled that they plan to campaign on the bill to flip the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, pointing to data showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest. Mr Jeffries held the floor for his Democrats for more than four hours ahead of the final vote, as he told the stories of everyday Americans whom he argued would be harmed by Mr Trump's legislation. 'This bill, this one big, ugly Bill – this reckless Republican budget, this disgusting abomination – is not about improving the quality of life of the American people,' he said. AFP
