Off the wire
• Indian PM reiterates commitment to build peaceful Afghanistan  • UN envoy's meeting with Syrian gov't delegation rescheduled: spokesperson  • China ready to work with Latin America to fight Zika virus  • France's car sales rise 3.5 pct year-on-year in January  • Namibia stuns defending World Cup Champions  • Taiwan manufacturing PMI at 9-month high  • China launches 21st Beidou navigation satellite  • Israeli forces kill Palestinian after alledged stabbing attempt in West Bank  • 2nd LD Writethru: Afghan suicide attack kills 10, wounds 20, Taliban claims responsibility  • 60 pct of EU's lower secondary pupils studied more than one foreign language in 2014  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Singapore stocks end down 1.02 pct

Xinhua, February 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Singapore shares closed 1.02 percent lower on Monday, as investors adopted cautious stance following the release of China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) data for January.

China's official PMI in January declined to 49.4, the lowest since August 2012, highlighting risks that the country faces a structural downturn. But analysts cautioned on taking the January numbers too heavily due to the Chinese New Year seasonality effect when manufacturing activities tended to slow down.

DBS Group Research said "we note that historically, the Singapore stock market tends to be underpinned during the March to April period leading to the ex-dividend date for many stocks over the April to May period. We lift immediate support for the Straits Times Index to 2,585 points and peg a rebound potential to 2,750 points."

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index fell 26.70 points to 2,602.41 points. Trading volume was 1 billion shares worth 1.07 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 203 to 183, while 537 stocks did not move.

Singapore Post rose 0.4 percent to 1.34 Singapore dollars. It published a letter to Singapore newspaper The Business Times, defending it against claims in the newspaper that it inappropriately chose PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its recently appointed special auditor.

PwC has been hired to review a previously-announced administrative oversight where Singapore Post did not disclose the personal interests of one of its directors when it bought another firm.

The Business Times wrote that, since Singapore Post has already hired PwC as its external auditor and has a client relationship with PwC, the accounting firm may not be able to review Singapore Post's oversight with complete impartiality. But Singapore Post responded it had settled fairly and voluntarily on PwC despite the firm's continuing role as external auditors.

Among top gainers, Jardine Matheson rose 0.4 percent to 52.70 U.S. dollars, while Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by falling 2.4 percent to 36.40 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.43 Singapore dollars) Endit