SINGAPORE - The Straits Times Index (STI) ended April 16 at 3,144.76 points, down 38.85 points or 1.2 per cent.
The fall marked its fourth consecutive drop, as investors took their cue from the overnight decline in North American and European markets.
Asian indexes were uniformly down, with the Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index one of the biggest decliners after it lost 2.7 per cent.
The Nikkei 225 finished down 1.9 per cent, the Hang Seng Index fell 2.1 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi shed 2.3 per cent.
Markets did not appear to take much comfort from China’s positive gross domestic product figure. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 5.3 per cent in the first quarter.
The GDP reading was better than market expectations, said JP Morgan Asset Management portfolio manager and China macro strategist Andrea Yang, who added that the real estate sector continued to show signs of weakness.
Mr Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, noted that the April 16 data releases from China followed a string of disappointing economic reports in the previous week.
This included “lacklustre export and import figures, and stagnant consumer price growth”, raising questions about “the efficacy of China’s stimulus measures and the broader trajectory of its economic recovery”.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings was the only STI component to buck the day’s downward trend, ending up 1.7 per cent.
Property group CapitaLand Investment was one of the biggest decliners of the day, falling 3.8 per cent on trading volume that was more than 2.5 times its average volume over the last year. THE BUSINESS TIMES
