SINGAPORE shares closed lower on Wednesday (Dec 11) amid declines in the banking stocks, with property developer Hongkong Land the biggest loser.
The Straits Times Index (STI) shed 20.73 points, or 0.5 per cent, to end at 3,792.82. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 286 to 195, after 919.6 million securities worth about S$1 billion changed hands.
The three local banks closed the day lower. DBS declined 0.7 per cent or S$0.32 to S$43.68, OCBC was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.10 at S$16.63, and UOB lost 0.1 per cent or S$0.05 to finish at S$37.10.
Hongkong Land was at the bottom of the table on the STI, down 3.6 per cent or US$0.17 at US$4.57. Thai Beverage gained the most, ending up 1.8 per cent, or S$0.01, at S$0.575 on a cum dividend basis.
The declines in the local stocks were despite positive sentiment regarding Singapore’s full-year growth for 2024, which economists predict will climb significantly, based on a survey released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Wednesday. Their forecast for 2025 growth, however, picked up only slightly.
Elsewhere in the region, key indices ended mixed. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 0.4 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.8 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed flat, while South Korea’s Kospi was up around 1 per cent.
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More details on China’s monetary and fiscal easing could be unveiled following an annual economic work conference, which kicked off on Wednesday.
Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, said that a divergence in growth in the Asia-Pacific region is likely to be more acute in 2025.
“The (US Federal Reserve) easing should help, but less than originally expected, as inflation expectations pile up in the US. Against such a backdrop, China should, in principle, be hit the hardest, which calls for additional and more consumption-oriented stimulus,” she said in a note.
“Still, we don’t expect China to be able to avoid additional deceleration in 2025, even with more lax monetary policies, to around 4.5 per cent, slightly lower than our expected 4.8 per cent GDP growth for 2024,” she added.
