[SINGAPORE] Local stocks ended Thursday (Apr 24) muted, following a mixed performance in other Asian markets after China signalled its openness to trade talks and US President Donald Trump suggested potential tariff cuts on Beijing.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) closed almost flat, down 0.4 points at 3,831.92.
Across the broader market, decliners outnumbered gainers 271 to 260, with 1.2 billion securities worth S$1.6 billion traded.
Singapore’s trio of local banks ended Thursday in the red. was down 1.3 per cent or S$0.54 at S$42.34, OCBC slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$16.54, and UOB fell 1 per cent or S$0.34 to finish at S$35.61.
Their declines come after their shares had climbed around 8.2 per cent on average in the last two weeks, after Trump’s Apr 2 tariff announcement sparked a sell-off.
On the STI, SGX was the biggest gainer, rising 4 per cent or S$0.56 to S$14.50.
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At the bottom of the index was Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT), which shed 4.1 per cent or S$0.05 to end at S$1.16. This comes after MLT’s fourth-quarter distribution per unit fell 11.6 per cent to S$0.01955 due to lower revenue contribution from China and weak regional currencies. Its manager also warned that trade tensions could weigh on performance.
Elsewhere in the region, key indices were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.5 per cent, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 per cent, and the Kospi was down 0.1 per cent.
The Asean region is expected to see subdued inflation and contained commodity prices as a result of slowing external demand from the US amid the ongoing tariff uncertainties, said RHB group chief economist Barnabas Gan.
“Our base-case view suggests that moderate supply chain congestion could push inflation higher in the US, while lower commodity prices lead to softer inflation across Asean countries, including Singapore,” he said.
He added that Singapore’s economy is likely to face further pressure from “rising trade tensions, which could increase economic uncertainty, dampening global business investment and consumer spending”.
As a result, RHB expects Singapore’s GDP growth to slow to around 2 per cent, with risks tilted toward the lower end of a 0.5-to-1-per-cent range due to “heightening uncertainties on the external front”.
