FTSE STI closed 3,288.14, up 5.07 points or +0.15% with a total volume of 4.46b and a total value of S$1.24b. Total number of advance vs decline was 226 vs 227. Of the 30 component index stocks, 12 closed positive, 5 unchanged and 13 closed negative. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ +0.610
2. JSH 500US$ +0.300
3. Jardine C&C +0.300
4. DBS +0.070
5. SembMar +0.050
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. HKLand US$ -0.050
2. GLP -0.040
3. SIA -0.030
4. SGX -0.030
5. KepCorp -0.030
US markets closed mostly down last Friday as investors maintained cautious ahead of the G20 over the weekend. Asian bourses were mixed for the day with Nikkei +2.09%, SSE -0.45% and HSI -0.27%. STI flat with a 0.15% gain with volume and value thin down as compared with last week. 12 of the 30 index stocks managed to register positive closing.
G20 meeting did not address the issue of sharp weakening the the Japanese Yen and that caused Yen to weaken today, resulting in Nikkei rally 2%. Over the weekend China announced a weak CNY retail sales data and that disappointed the SSE, reopened after 1 week CNY holiday. Singapore this morning released its January non-oil export data coming in at +0.5% on year vs +2.6% expected, dragged down by pharmaceutical exports which fell 22.9% on year. That set of data coupling with performance from regional bourses caused investors to take profit and maintained cautious. The drop in volume also indicating speculating or punting of penny stocks starting to tone down.
Investors in general are waiting for some catalysts in term of macro events. For STI infrastructure play should be theme for the next couple of days as Singapore Government will unveil its budget on 25th February. The recent White Paper on Population clearly indicating an expansion of infrastructure to cater for the a possible population size of 6.9m in 2030.
