[SINGAPORE] Stocks on the Singapore bourse ended higher on Wednesday (Apr 23), tracking gains in the region. The uptick followed remarks from US President Donald Trump, who signalled no plans to dismiss Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and suggested the possibility of lower tariffs for China.
Adding to the positive sentiment, data from Singapore’s Department of Statistics showed that the country’s core inflation slowed more than expected in March.
The benchmark Straits Times Index rose 1 per cent or 36.91 points to 3,832.32. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered decliners 385 to 178, after 1.5 billion securities worth S$1.7 billion changed hands.
The top gainer on the index was Mapletree Logistics Trust. The counter rose 3.4 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.21.
Meanwhile, the biggest decliner was ST Engineering, which slid 3.8 per cent or S$0.28 to S$7.08.
The trio of local banks closed in positive territory, with DBS up 2.5 per cent or S$1.03 at S$42.88. OCBC rose 1.3 per cent or S$0.21 to S$16.59, and UOB gained 1.1 per cent or S$0.41 to finish at S$35.95.
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Key indices across Asia closed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by overnight gains on Wall Street as optimism around the easing of US-China trade tensions grew.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.4 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.9 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.6 per cent, and Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up 1 per cent.
Eli Lee, chief investment strategist at Bank of Singapore, noted that broad-based weakness in US equities, Treasuries and the greenback will exert “significant pressure” on Trump to de-escalate.
“We see market volatility staying heightened over the near term given limited progress made in the US trade discussions, and uncertainty over President Trump’s recent threats to remove Fed chairman Jerome Powell, which he has since attempted to walk back from,” he said.
Lee warned that a recession could materialise if Trump’s proposed global reciprocal tariffs are implemented alongside existing US-China tariffs and remain in effect until the end of 2025, particularly if they provoke foreign retaliation.
“Our base case expectation is that the 10 per cent baseline tariff in place today will stay, but most of the threatened reciprocal tariffs will not be implemented, and thus we expect two quarters of stagflation in (the first half of) 2025 instead of a recession,” he added.
