SINGAPORE stocks closed on Friday (Nov 29) in the black, as global markets appeared to take Donald Trump’s impending presidency with cautious optimism.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) gained 0.1 per cent or 2.04 points to 3,739.29. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 269 to 217, with 862.3 million securities worth S$956.3 million changing hands.
On the STI, telecom group Singtel was the top gainer, rising 1.6 per cent or S$0.05 to S$3.10.
Meanwhile, in-flight caterer and ground handler Sats was at the bottom of the table. It fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$3.76.
The three local banks ended the day mixed. UOB declined 0.4 per cent or S$0.14 to S$36.36, while DBS was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.18 at S$42.43 and OCBC remained flat at S$16.28.
Notably, shares of Nam Cheong jumped 19.2 per cent, after the group announced that it had bagged offshore support vessel charter contracts worth RM1.2 billion (S$360 million).
Investors of Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (S-Reits) digested the after-hours announcement on Thursday by the Monetary Authority of Singapore that S-Reits will be subject to standardised leverage limit requirements across the sector,and must provide additional leverage-related disclosures to “foster prudent borrowing”.
In a research note on Friday, OCBC said: “We believe it will be a marginal positive for the sector as it provides more buffer and financial flexibility to the S-Reits. There will also be more breathing space for some S-Reits with significant overseas operations, especially those that have faced a spike in borrowing costs in US dollars and suffered declines in their income due to operational headwinds.”
Other markets in Asia were mixed. The Shanghai Composite climbed 0.9 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index declined 2 per cent, and Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index ended 0.2 per cent lower.
Barnabas Gan, acting group chief economist and head of market research of RHB Bank, noted on Friday: “Global markets seem to take Trump 2.0 with relative optimism, a stance we think will continue into 2025. The merriment came from the surge in US-centric equities to record highs in November, coupled with the VIX (the CBOE Volatility Index, which is also known as the ‘fear index’) declining to its lowest since July 2024 as at yesterday’s closing.”
