FTSE STI closed 3,440.83, up 3.22 points or +0.09% with a total volume of 1.38b and a total value of S$1.28b. Total number of advance vs decline was 240 vs 193. Of the 30 component index stocks, 18 closed positive, 2 unchanged and 10 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JMH USD +1.710
2. Jardine C&C +0.640
3. UOB +0.090
4. CityDev +0.060
5. DBS +0.050
5. StarHub +0.050
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Genting SP -0.065
2. SembCorp -0.050
3. HongkongLand USD -0.050
4. ComfortDelGro -0.050
5. Wilmar -0.040
US markets rose at least 0.1% yesterday and Asian bourses were mixed for the day with Nikkei -0.10%, SSE -0.53% and HSI +0.11%. STI edged up with a +0.09% closing in slightly higher daily volume and value with 18 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
2 events yesterday that led to US markets closing positive with DJ and S&P500 hitting another record high. US Fed Chairman in her testimony to Congress signal that Fed will not raise rate before June 2015 and will be patience with rate. That pretty much in line with expectation by most. Greece list of reform proposals was approved by Eurogroup and international creditors hence granting them the 4-month extension. However, do note that 4-month later, the same issue might re-surface again if not much progress has been made on the reform by Greece. For the day the focus also fell on the HSBC China flash PMI for February and surprisingly the data showed expansion coming in at 50.1 compared with previous month of 49.7. Unfortunately, those series of good news failed to prevent Asian markets from having another positive closing. SSE even with the good news failed to close positive after it reopened from CNY holiday.
STI managed to stay positive throughout but the gain was capped as investors took profit upon seeing weakness in regional markets. While investors might be still digesting the effect of Singapore Budget, another news that captured attention was SGX announcement that it current CEO will not extend his contract and will set to leave after June 2015. That probably is the best news for Singapore market so far given that there are so many questions raised for those measures being implemented for the past 6 years by this CEO in particular the declining of daily volume after removing lunch time break, reduce the bid size and lately reduction of board lot size.
