FTSE STI closed 3,354.46, up 20.44 points or +0.61% with a total volume of 2.00b and a total value of S$1.11b. Total number of advance vs decline was 248 vs 183. Of the 30 component index stocks, 20 closed positive, 5 unchanged and 5 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C +0.980
2. SIA +0.440
3. JSH USD +0.370
4. JMH USD +0.180
5. HongkongLand USD +0.160
The 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. CityDev -0.040
2. SPH -0.020
3. Sembcorp -0.010
4. Noble -0.010
5. GoldenArgi -0.010
US markets managed to close positive yesterday and Asian bourses were mostly positive for the day with Nikkei -0.49%, SSE +4.74% and HSI +1.68%. STI chalked up a gain of 0.61% in higher volume and value than past days with 20 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
US markets were largely in the negative for most part of the day before turning positive during the last hour of trading. Corporate earning appearing to be weighed on as so far banks have been missing expectation and for those who managed to beat expectation were not very positive in their forecast. Question started to pour in if the economic data for past months were so positive, why corporate earning and forecast have been weak ? BOJ today kept policy unchanged and cut CPI forecast and that weighed down Nikkei as compared to regional markets. Investors are largely positive and looking forwards to potential QE from ECB tomorrow.
STI continued the rebound and higher volume and value were detected today. Was this due to increase in participation from retail investors after the reduced board lot size ? Maybe or they were actually from the market makers ? For corporate earning, so far Singapore companies fared better than those in US as not so much of unexpected worse than expected result. Earning season just started for almost 2 weeks, hence STI still have the time for upside as long as those blue chips do not disappoint in their earning.
