Bulls And Bears

Traders puzzling over global economic outlook

S'pore shares flat amid region's mixed performance; worry over US recovery

Local shares ended broadly unchanged yesterday amid a mixed performance across the region as traders tried to get a handle on the global economic outlook .

There was little lead from Wall Street overnight, where tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Apple took a hit as investors grow increasingly concerned about the resilience of a recovery in the United States.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) closed 3.07 points or 0.12 per cent lower at 2,497.71, with gainers and losers evenly split at 202 to 202 on trade of 1.74 billion shares worth $1.89 billion.

The strongest performing STI component stock by a long way was the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which rose 5.12 per cent to $9.03.

This comes after the bourse operator announced the listing of the world's largest Chinese pure government bond exchange-traded fund (ETF), opening a potential avenue of growth in its ETF business.

The ETF will begin trading on Monday, with around US$676 million (S$918 million) in assets under management.

Goldman Sachs also upgraded its call on the SGX this week to "buy" from "neutral", on the view that its derivatives business will perform better than the market expects. Goldman raised its price target on the stock from $8.55 to $10. The SGX will trade ex for its final dividend of eight cents a share on Oct 1.

The STI's next best performer was Keppel Corp, which rose 1.91 per cent to $4.28. It was closely followed by Dairy Farm International, 1.8 per cent ahead at US$3.97.

Among the smaller caps, Mermaid Maritime rose 9.8 per cent to 6.7 cents. The company, which has a market cap of $94.7 million, said earlier this week that a wholly owned unit had exercised a put option on a 33.76 per cent stake in Asia Offshore Drilling with Seadrill. The consideration for the disposal is US$31 million.

Separately, Mermaid also announced that it is forming a joint venture with a unit of Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production to develop robotics and artificial intelligence technology to provide subsea engineering services.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.47 per cent, Shanghai shares put on 2.07 per cent and Shenzhen advanced 1.5 per cent.

It was a similar story in Seoul, where foreign cash inflows helped lift the Kospi by 0.26 per cent for its fourth straight week of gains.

Australian shares dipped in late trade, although tech and mining heavyweights and Macquarie Group kept losses to a minimal and allowed the market to dodge a fifth consecutive weekly decline.


  • Additional information from Reuters, Agence France-Presse

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 19, 2020, with the headline Traders puzzling over global economic outlook. Subscribe