Singapore shares resume Thursday afternoon trading, up 0.3% on day

SINGAPORE equities resumed trading on Thursday afternoon, paring some of their morning gains, with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 9.15 points or 0.3 per cent to 3,034.18 as at 1.04pm.

Investor confidence remains buttressed by both monetary and fiscal stimulus measures to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19.

Shortly after the afternoon session began, volume traded on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 865 million securities with a total turnover of S$892.9 million. Both volume and turnover are on track to beat their respective 2019 intraday averages.

Across the market, advancers beat decliners 236 to 117. The blue-chip index had 10 of its 30 counters trading in the red.

The local banks kept their place as the main laggards on the STI as investors anticipate other central banks to take cues from the US Federal Reserve in lowering borrowing rates.

DBS fell S$0.13 or 0.5 per cent to S$23.78, OCBC Bank lost S$0.05 or 0.5 per cent to S$10.50 while United Overseas Bank was trading at S$23.87, down S$0.13 or 0.5 per cent, as at 1.03pm. Since the Fed's 50 basis point cut on Tuesday, CGS-CIMB, Citi Research and DBS Group Research have lowered their price targets to account for depressed net interest margins due to rate cuts.

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As the banks stayed their decline, real estate investment trusts (Reits) continued to climb.

Leading the way was Ascendas Reit, which jumped S$0.13 or 3.9 per cent to S$3.46. Meanwhile, CapitaLand Mall Trust units were up S$0.05 or 2 per cent at S$2.51 and Mapletree Commercial Trust was S$0.05 or 2.2 per cent higher at S$2.29.

Frasers Centrepoint Trust added S$0.06 or 2 per cent to trade at S$3.03.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, equity benchmarks in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were decidedly higher. Bucking the trend was Malaysia, which was seeing slight losses.