Singapore stocks end higher on Thursday, bucking regional trend; STI up 0.3%
Thursday, August 18, 2022       17:35 WIB

SINGAPORE shares ended Thursday's (Aug 18) trading session in the black, emerging as the only winner among key regional indices that took a hit on the back of hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve.
The July minutes released on Wednesday signalled more interest rate hikes to fight rising inflation, although officials agreed on the need to eventually dial back the pace of these hikes.
Despite the news, traders in Singapore were unfazed. The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent or 10.72 points to 3,273.48. Gainers outpaced losers 245 to 218, after 1.2 billion securities worth S$961.6 million changed hands.
"The Fed minutes on Wednesday didn't really offer anything we didn't already know," Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam said.
"The central bank did stress the need to slow the pace of rate increases as monetary policy tightened further which most expected would be the case anyway. Of course, that is ultimately dependent on the inflation data allowing for such a move and the July reading was certainly the first step towards that."
The biggest gainer on the local bourse was iFast Corporation : AIY +9.98%. The stock closed at S$4.74, up 10 per cent or S$0.43.
The trio of lenders were also among the top gainers. DBS : D05 +0.59% added 0.6 per cent or S$0.19 to S$32.44, UOB : U11 +0.56% rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.15 to S$27.00, while OCBC : O39 +0.81% advanced 0.8 per cent or S$0.10 to S$12.39.
Singapore Exchange : S68 +0.6% was another top advancer, rising 0.6 per cent or S$0.06 to S$10.00. The company saw its earnings for H1 rise 13.2 per cent to S$232.7 million.
Nio : NIO -4.8% was the biggest decliner on the bourse, shedding 4.8 per cent or US$1.01 to US$20.04.

Sumber : businesstimes.com.sg