Singapore shares post slight losses on Friday, up 1.2% on the week

Risk-on sentiment continued to have considerable influence during Friday's session in Asia thanks to investors' hopes of a de-escalation in the trade dispute between the US and China.

That said, Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) slipped into the red late in the session, bucking the regional trend on Friday, to end the week at 3,144.48, down 2.58 points or 0.1 per cent.

The blue-chip index added 37.96 points or 1.2 per cent from last Friday's close of 3,106.52.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, key markets Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea all finished higher.

"While trade-friendly news flows carry the day for risk assets, the recent run of positive global macro data is now raising suspicions that global growth fears may be well overblown," AxiTrader Asia-Pacific market strategist Stephen Innes said.

In Singapore, trading volume clocked in at 897.04 million securities, three-quarters the daily average in the first seven months of 2019. Total turnover came to S$1.01 billion, 95 per cent of the January-to-July daily average.

Across the market, advancers trumped decliners 208 to 158. The blue-chip index had six of the 30 counters closing in the red.

For each trading day of the week, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the most active counter on the STI. On Friday, the shipbuilder closed 1.5 Singapore cents or 1.6 per cent higher at 98 cents with 43.0 million shares changing hands.

The local banks also closed higher. DBS Group Holdings added S$0.13 or 0.5 per cent to close at S$24.76; OCBC Bank was S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent up at S$10.85 and United Overseas Bank ended at S$25.50, up S$0.24 or 0.9 per cent.

Following news that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust will be dropped from the STI on Sept 23, its units edged down 0.1 US cent or 0.6 per cent to 15.6 US cents.

Meanwhile, Mapletree Commercial Trust, which will join the STI in place of HPH Trust, fell four Singapore cents or 1.8 per cent to S$2.24.