[SINGAPORE] Local stocks closed lower on Friday (Sep 12), bucking gains in the region.
The Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.3 per cent or 11.58 points to 4,344.24. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 367 to 190, after 1.4 billion securities worth S$1.4 billion changed hands.
Elsewhere in the region, key indices ended higher. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.9 per cent, the Hang Seng Index gained 1.2 per cent, the Kospi Composite Index was up 1.5 per cent, and the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 1.1 per cent.
For the week, the STI is still up 0.8 per cent, tracking Wall Street gains amid expectations of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
The Fed is “in a sweet spot” for a comfortable 25-basis-point rate cut next week, as US consumer price index data quelled worst-case inflation risks, said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho Securities in Singapore.
“Enthused by the ‘green light’ for an unfettered rate cut, US equities have rallied, and the US dollar has slipped alongside US treasury yields,” he added.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
But Varathan expects that the cuts will be “conditional”, which will result in more measured equity market bulls and wider “risk-on” bets.
“To be absolutely clear, it will not emancipate the Fed from the bonds of inflation risks, and so, the prospects and pace for further rate cuts will necessarily be conditioned on inflation being sufficiently tame,” he said.
On the STI, Friday’s biggest decliner was DBS, which fell 1.5 per cent or S$0.78 to S$51.79.
OCBC was also down 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$16.85, and UOB was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.16 to S$35.30.
The top gainer on the index was Jardine Matheson Holdings, which rose 1.5 per cent or US$0.91 to US$61.41.
