FTSE STI closed 3,274.76, up 21.00 points or +0.65% with a total volume of 3.58b and a total value of S$1.38b. Total number of advance vs decline was 246 vs 156. Of the 30 component index stocks, 21 closed positive, 4 unchanged and 5 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C +1.110
2. UOB +0.210
3. SGX +0.100
4. JMH 400US$ +0.080
5. ST Engg +0.070
The 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Kep Corp -0.040
2. SIA Engg -0.020
3. ComfortDelGro -0.010
4. CapitaMall -0.010
5. HPH Trust US$ -0.005
US markets closed mixed yesterday after a weak industrial data. Asian bourses were mixed with Nikkei -0.32%, SSE -0.52% and HSI +0.24%. STI closed with a +0.65%, one of the better performer in regional bourses with a slightly heavy volume and value for the day. 21 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
Couple of events that dominated today market action. Apple's earning though beating expectation (because expectation was so low) but the forecast was weak (anyway global economy is not about Apple, so no need to be like majority that so concern about Apple's earning, think of the bigger picture and not trap in the mini-box). For Japan, it reported a weaker than expected export number coming in at +7.4% vs +10.3% and HSBC China flash PMI came in at 11-month low of 47.7. That 2 pieces of news saw weakness in Nikkei and SSE. However, in the afternoon, EU unexpectedly reported an expanded manufacturing data for the first time in 2 years, coming in at 50.1 from 48.8 in June. That news caused European bourses to rise and sentiment spreading to Asia bourses that still operating in the afternoon.
For STI in the first part of the day was tracking regional events from Japan and China but in the afternoon session main focus was on SPHREIT when it commenced trading opening at $0.98 vs IPO price of $0.90. Most of the volume was churned from that counter. Sentiment wise might have caused SPHREIT to open higher than IPO price but from a long-term investment perspective there are several questions that caused concern in particular when it only has 2 assets in its portfolio.
Market still divided between sentiment (macro events driven) and fundamental resulting in range bound mode.
