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Roundup: Singapore stocks end up 0.19 pct

Xinhua, January 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Singapore shares closed 0.19 percent higher on Monday, buoyed by investors' expectation that U. S. Federal Reserve will not rush to hike interest rate following key job data released last week.

Federal Reserve would be patient in tightening policy given the weakness of wages apparent in the jobs numbers. Wages fell by the most since the series began in 2006 even as payrolls increased by a brisk 252,000 in December last year.

The U.S. corporate earnings season will start this week and market expectations are low given sluggish global growth and the strength of the greenback.

Meanwhile, investors are also looking ahead at a few key economic data from China, with trade data out on Tuesday and lending data out in the coming days. Market in average expects China's imports may suffer a 7-percent decline year-on-year for December.

Voyage Research said "we expect the market to correct lower for this week at the support level of 3,300 points. If the Straits Times Index trends below the support of 3,300 points, then we anticipate downward objective in the range of 3,250 points and 3, 280 points."

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 6.45 points to 3, 344.89 points. Trading volume was 1.1 billion shares worth 906 million Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 245 to 159, while 538 stocks did not move.

Ezra Holdings dropped 1.8 percent to 56 Singapore cents. It announced that the Group's wholly owned subsidiary London Marine Consultants (LMC), Ezra's Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Turret Design outfit has been awarded a contract by Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Jurong Shipyard of Singapore, to supply an external turret mooring system for the Libra field's Extended Well Test FPSO vessel. Libra is one of Brazil's biggest oil fields to date.

Keppel REIT shed 0.4 percent to 1.205 Singapore dollars. It announced that it has achieved full occupancy at nine of its eleven completed towers. This includes six properties in Singapore at three properties in Australia. There has also been a positive rental revision of an average of 17 percent.

Among top gainers, Jardine Matheson rose 2.2 percent to 62.32 U. S. dollars, while Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by falling 0.6 percent to 39.77 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.34 Singapore dollars) Endi