Singapore shares drift up, with eyes on GE2020 campaign

SINGAPORE shares ended Wednesday on a firmer note, but trading interest was light, with some brokers spending their time following the various 'live coverages' of the campaigning for the general election here.

In all, 191 candidates from 11 political parties and an independent candidate will contest Singapore's 13th General Election since independence.

Market sentiment was also boosted by signs that China's factories are slowly gathering steam, with the Caixin/Markit manufacturing PMI rising to 51.2, compared with expectations for 50.5.

"This also marks a six-month high for the reading, sustaining the recovery trend and injecting further optimism for the market," said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG.

The Straits Times Index (STI) opened at 2,604.08 and hit an intraday high of 2,619.35, before it settled at 2,610.17, up 20.26 points, or 0.78 per cent.

Close to 1.7 billion securities, worth S$840.83 million, were traded. There were 242 gainers to 133 losers.

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The three local banks - DBS, UOB and OCBC - underpinned the STI.

Loss-making Singapore eDevelopment topped the actives, with more than 200 million shares changing hands. The stock ended at S$0.114, down 0.3 cent. Last month, the company announced that its subsidiary proved in-vitro success in independent laboratory testing of a treatment and prophylactic to protect cells against Covid-19 and a surface disinfectant to kill the virus in very low concentrations.

Luzhou Biochem technology led the advancers, soaring more than 90 per cent to close at S$0.029. Its founder - Niu Ji Xing, who is also Luzhou's executive chairman and chief executive officer - has launched a voluntary conditional general offer to buy Luzhou shares at S$0.03 apiece, in a deal that values the company at S$17.8 million.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) ended 15 Singapore cents lower, at S$8.19, in spite of news that it will be launching FTSE Taiwan Index - which covers nearly 80 per cent of Taiwan's listed companies by market capitalisation - to replace MSCI Taiwan Index.

Some analysts are expecting to see some upside for SGX, which has seen its share price battered by news that rival Hong Kong exchange had struck a deal for a suite of MSCI equity indexes similar to those offered here.

Frencken Group inched four cents, or 4.6 per cent, up to end at S$0.92 on more than six million shares traded.

DBS has a buy call on the group and has raised its target price to S$1.02, from S$0.92 previously.

The research house noted Frencken's diverse business, which should help to provide resilience and stability to the group. Underpinning the call is the company's exposure to the medical segment and the semiconductor sectors, which account for about 30 per cent of FY19 revenue.