SINGAPORE stocks entered Tuesday (May 7) morning slightly stronger following overnight gains on Wall Street and Europe brought about by optimism over potential rate cuts by central banks.
US stocks were pulled into positive territory the whole session after the release of a jobs report on Friday that showed weaker-than-expected employment growth.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index headed down 0.2 per cent or 5.94 points to 3,309.13 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 55 to 36, after 21 million securities worth S$37.6 million changed hands.
The most active counter by volume was Singtel : Z74 0%, which added 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.39, with 4.1 million shares traded.
Other heavily traded securities included CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust : C38U 0%, which advanced 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.94 with 1.5 million units traded and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust : BUOU 0% (FLCT), which held steady at S$1.01 with 1.9 million units traded.
On Tuesday, FLCT posted a 1.1 per cent drop in distribution per unit for the first half of the fiscal year to S$0.0348. Though the Reit’s topline grew year on year, this was offset in part by higher vacancies, property operating expenses and finance costs.
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Banking stocks rose in early morning trade. DBS : D05 0% was trading up 0.3 per cent or S$0.12 at S$35.93, UOB : U11 0% gained 0.5 per cent or S$0.15 to S$30.71, while OCBC : O39 0% was trading 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 higher at S$14.29.
Other active index counters included Mapletree Logistics Trust : M44U 0%, which lost 2.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.36 and Venture Corporation, which was down 4.2 per cent or S$0.60 to S$13.65.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.5 per cent higher at 38,852.27. The broad-based S&P 500 increased 1 per cent to 5,180.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index finished 1.2 per cent higher to 16,349.25.
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.5 per cent, supported by insurance stocks which led gains. UK equities were closed due to a public holiday.
