Roundup: Singapore stocks end up 0.64 pct

Singapore shares closed 0.64 percent higher on Thursday, as investors shrugged off fall in U.S. stocks overnight amid disappointment with the Federal Reserve's policy statement.

While the Federal Reserve said in its policy statement it is "closely monitoring" developments in global economies and markets, it stopped short of ruling out a March increase in interest rates.

After weeks of sharp swings in global markets, the uncertainty about the pace and number of U.S. interest rate hike throughout the year continued to weigh on market sentiment. U.S. market benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4 percent to below 16,000 points on Wednesday.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 16.27 points to 2,562.45 points. But trading volume shrank to 745 million shares worth 901 million Singapore dollars. Decliners slightly outnumbered advancers 192 to 187, while 545 stocks did not move.

Yoma Strategic closed flat at 43 Singapore cents. The Myanmar-focused business conglomerate reported net profit more than tripled to 25.2 million Singapore dollars in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015, from 7.8 million Singapore dollars a year ago.

The strong growth in earnings was largely attributed to the fair value gain recorded by its telecom tower business and the strong performance of its non-real-estate segments. Its revenue fell 5 percent to 23.8 million Singapore dollars from 25 million Singapore dollars one year ago, although its non-real estate businesses recorded a 260 percent growth in revenue to 13.8 million Singapore dollars.

CDL Hospitality Trusts rose 1.2 percent to 1.28 Singapore dollars. It reported 10.06 Singapore cents in distribution per stapled security for financial year 2015, 8.4 percent lower than the 10.98 Singapore cents declared in 2014.

Its revenue rose 3.4 percent to 172.4 million Singapore dollars, though net property income fell 2.5 percent to 137 million Singapore dollars due to the challenging hospitality sectors in Singapore and Maldives, as well as the weakness of the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar against the Singapore dollar.

Among the top gainers, Jardine Cycle and Carriage rose 1.6 percent to 35.45 Singapore dollars, whereas DBS Group became one of the top losers by falling 0.9 percent to 13.54 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.43 Singapore dollars) Enditem