SINGAPORE shares ended a shortened trading week with gains on Thursday (Aug 31), ahead of a public holiday for the presidential election on Friday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) advanced 13.08 points or 0.4 per cent to finish the day at 3,233.30, taking its cue from overnight gains on Wall Street. The index added 43.4 points or 1.3 per cent over the week.

Elsewhere, regional bourses ended mixed. Key gauges in Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Taiwan fell while Australia and Japan finished higher.

Equity markets have been cheering the prospect of a less hawkish approach from the US Federal Reserve following recent data signalling that the world’s largest economy is cooling as a result of the aggressive tightening trajectory to combat inflation.

Trading remained cautious ahead of the US core personal consumption expenditures data to be released. While the broader trend for US inflation is still to the downside, there may be concerns that any persistence in pricing pressures reflected may feed into a high-for-longer rate outlook, said IG market analyst Yeap Jun Rong.

Further signs of a weakening Chinese economy also kept investors cautious. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index showed a slight recovery but was below the 50-point mark. This meant factory activity contracted for a fifth straight month since August, underscoring the frail recovery from a pandemic slowdown.

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On the home front, some 2.1 billion securities worth S$2.4 billion changed hands on Thursday. Gainers trounced losers, with 275 counters up and 259, down. Gains were led by Jardine Cycle & Carriage, Jardine Matheson Holdings, Wilmar International and DBS.

Rex International Holding : 5WH 0% closed unchanged at S$0.143 and was the day’s seventh most active counter with 21.9 million shares traded. The Singapore Exchange regulation (SGX RegCo) on Tuesday issued a notice of compliance to the mainboard-listed firm in relation to its acquisition of medtech startup Moroxite T. The deal involved an interested person transaction.

Olam Group : VC2 0% finished the day at S$1.25, up S$0.01 or 0.81 per cent. The agri giant’s food ingredients unit OFI has secured a multi-tranche sustainability-linked facility worth US$1.8 billion to refinance its existing loans and for general corporate purposes, the company announced on Thursday.