SHARES in Singapore continued its rally on Wednesday (June 19), tracking overnight gains in the US.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new records the night before, with chip company Nvidia overtaking Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
In Singapore, the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.1 per cent or 2.22 points to close at 3,304.
Across the broader market, advancers outnumbered decliners 305 to 246, with 1.2 billion securities worth S$966.8 million having changed hands.
The biggest gainer on the STI for the second consecutive day was consumer goods conglomerate Jardine Cycle & Carriage, which gained 1.5 per cent or S$0.43 to close at S$28.61.
Property developer Hongkong Land saw the biggest drop on the index. The counter fell by 1.2 per cent or US$0.04 to close at US$3.21.
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Seatrium was the most actively traded counter by volume, with 49.8 million shares worth S$74.3 million traded. The counter dropped by 0.7 per cent or S$0.01 to close at S$1.50.
Meanwhile, markets across the region ended mixed on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei was up by 0.2 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi was up by 1.2 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) rose 2.9 per cent, although Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.4 per cent.
Yeap Jun Rong, a market analyst at trading platform IG, said that the economic data emerging from China continues to be mixed.
On one hand, the latest data on China’s retail sales was stronger than expected, said Yeap. The figure was up 3.7 per cent for May compared to 2.3 per cent the month before.
However, industrial production in China had “lost some steam”. Data showed that industrial production grew 5.6 per cent year-on-year, down from a 6.7 per cent rise last month.
At the same time, China’s real estate sector has yet to recover, he added.
“If the trend in economic data disappoints further, it may send a warning sign for (China’s) growth and raise calls for more to be done to better achieve its growth target of around 5 per cent,” said Yeap.
