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Roundup: Singapore stocks end up 0.78 pct

Xinhua, January 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Singapore shares closed 0.78 percent higher on Friday as investors cheered Chinese authorities' move overnight to remove the controversial circuit-breaker mechanism.

The mechanism was blamed for triggering a stampede in China's stock markets this week.

While the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets rose on Friday, the trading was choppy throughout the day with the benchmark rising and falling by more than 2 percent at different stages.

The Chinese markets were suspended from trading on Monday and Thursday after they fell by the 7 percent limit allowed in the new circuit breaker mechanism ushered in this year. The implementation of the mechanism had hurt investor confidence.

Meanwhile, Singapore investors also took comfort in the step taken by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) to set a stronger Chinese yuan midpoint rate against the dollar. It set the rate at 6.5636 per dollar prior to market open, firmer than both the previous fix and Thursday's closing quote.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 21.32 points to 2,751.23 points. Trading volume was 1.43 billion shares worth 1.18 billion Singapore dollars. Advancers outnumbered decliners 235 to 150, while 542 stocks did not move.

Among top actives, Noble Group dropped 1.4 percent to 34 Singapore cents. The Standard and Poor's cut its investment credit rating on Noble to junk, lowering its long-term corporate credit rating on the commodity trader to "BB+" from "BBB-". A week ago, Moody's Investors Service also cut Noble's rating to junk status.

CapitaLand rose 0.6 percent to 3.16 Singapore dollars. Its wholly owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited, will make available its global network of serviced residences on Alitrip, an online travel service platform under Chinese e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group, a first for any serviced residence company. The partnership will allow Ascott to deepen access to over 100 million Chinese travelers currently served by Alitrip.

Among top gainers, Jardine Cycle and Carriage rose 0.6 percent to 33.24 Singapore dollars, while Jardine Matheson became one of the top losers by falling 2.1 percent to 48.03 U.S. dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.44 Singapore dollars) Endit