global cues help push up singapores sti 0 74 per cent higher 746262015

Singapore stocks ended higher Tuesday, boosted by a strong overnight close on Wall Street and a bullish regional stocks environment.

Indices and sectors

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 24.65 points or 0.74 per cent higher to 3,339.78, taking the year-to-date performance to -0.75 per cent.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index declined 0.02 per cent, while the FTSE ST Small Cap Index rose 0.21 per cent.

The Singapore Exchange traded a volume of 1,048.1 million shares valued at SG$916.8 million. Gainers outnumbered losers by 232/196.

Amongst the FTSE ST sectors, the gainers included real estate holding and development (+1.66 per cent), China (+1.54 per cent), industrials (+1.44 per cent) and real estate (+1.04 per cent). The top losing sectors were technology (-2.45 per cent), basic materials (-1.61 per cent), telecommunications (-0.62 per cent) and utilities (-0.58 per cent).

Stocks

Shares in Ezra Holdings Limited (SGX:5DN) fell 10.17 per cent to SG$0.265. Shareholders of the company have given the green signal for the issue of rights shares and convertible bonds to raise, in aggregate, about US$300 million (SG$400 million), for the repayment of existing debt. The company plans to use the proceeds of the issues to repay its SG$225 million fixed rate notes due in September this year, and its SG$150 million perpetual securities, also callable in September, according to Straits Times.

Ascott Residence Trust (SGX:A68U) raised SG$250 million from its issue of perpetual securities at a fixed distribution rate of 4.68 per cent per annum. The company will use the proceeds to finance its acquisitions while maintaining its gearing at around 40 per cent. The company disclosed that it received orders over four times the issue size.

Keppel Corporation Limited (SGX:BN4) and Sembcorp Marine Ltd (SGX:S51) were again the subject of the bribing controversy at Brazilian oil firm Petrobras, after data released on Friday during testimony in a Brazilian court alleged that their respective shipbuilding units, Keppel Fels and Jurong Shipyard, paid bribes through intermediaries to win contracts relating to 21 deep water drilling vessels.

Economic news

Singapore’s headline inflation in May was -0.4 per cent, up a notch from -0.5 per cent in April, due primarily to the higher cost of private road transportation, said the Business Times, noting that this was the seventh straight month in which that print remained in negative territory. However, core inflation plunged to a new five-year low of 0.1 per cent and, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), this “mainly reflected the impact of budgetary measures on services costs, as well as softer food inflation.”

Latest data issued by the Singapore Business Federation and DP Information Group showed that business outlook amongst Singapore’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) fell further for the third consecutive quarter, as reported by AsiaOne. The report, based on interviews of about 3,600 SMEs, showed that the Overall Index Score for the second half of 2015 fell from 54.0 to 53.5 – its lowest level since the start of 2013.

On Wall Street, stocks ended modestly higher as investors welcomed encouraging economic data out of the US as well as the Eurozone, and looked forward to a potential Greek debt deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 24.29 points (0.13 per cent) to 18,144.07. The S&P 500 gained 1.35 (0.06 per cent) at 2,124.20, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 6.12 (0.12 per cent) to 5,160.09, hitting a record close for the second successive day.