Singapore stocks track overnight Wall Street gains on Friday; STI up 0.7%
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.7 per cent or 27.74 points to 3,966.2. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 309 to 202, after 1.8 billion securities worth S$1.4 billion changed hands.
Regional markets were mixed. The Nikkei 225 gained 1.4 per cent, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.6 per cent and the IDX Composite was up 1 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.2 per cent and the Kospi was down 0.8 per cent.
In the US, markets rallied as weaker-than-projected economic data coincided with news that President Donald Trump will announce a new US Federal Reserve chair earlier than expected, said Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.
'The one-two punch of softer activity figures and the new leader of the central bank being named in September or October is bolstering rate cut wagers and sending the yield curve south in bull steepening fashion,' he said.
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In Singapore, Ministry of Manpower data on Friday showed both job vacancies and unemployment rose in the first quarter of 2025, causing the ratio between them to stay unchanged.
In the equities space, software services provider Info-Tech Systems on Friday launched its initial public offering (IPO) of 24,856,000 shares at S$0.87 each, marking the first Singapore mainboard listing in almost two years.
Japanese telco Nippon Telegraph and Telephone also lodged an initial public offering prospectus to spin off some of its data centres into a Singapore-listed real estate investment trust (S-Reit), marking what is likely to be the largest S-Reit listing in a decade.
On the STI, Hongkong Land is the top gainer, rising 3.4 per cent to US$5.84.
Sembcorp Industries is the biggest decliner, falling 1 per cent to S$6.83.
The local banks ended higher. DBS gained 1 per cent to S$44.86, OCBC rose 0.7 per cent to S$16.35, while UOB was up 0.4 per cent at S$36.
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