SINGAPORE shares ended slightly lower on Friday (Jan 24), following the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) easing monetary policy settings and US President Donald Trump calling for lower interest rates at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Trump also announced plans to cut taxes for companies investing in the United States, while imposing tariffs on those who choose not to.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.1 per cent or 2.31 points to 3,804.26. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 269 to 193, after one billion securities worth S$962.2 million changed hands.
The biggest gainer on the STI was Singtel, which rose by 2.9 per cent or S$0.09 to S$3.20. The telco conglomerate was also among the most actively traded counters by volume on the Singapore Exchange, with 31.2 million shares transacted.
At the bottom of the STI was Sats, which fell by 2.3 per cent or S$0.08 to finish at S$3.44.
The trio of local banks ended the day in the red. DBS declined 0.7 per cent or S$0.30 to S$43.51, UOB was down 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 at S$37.25, and OCBC slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$17.07.
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Across the region, key indices were mixed. South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index gained 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.9 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell 0.2 per cent, Indonesia’s IDX Composite ended 0.9 per cent lower, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.1 per cent.
On Friday morning, MAS said it will “slightly” reduce the slope of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate – or S$NEER – policy band, with no change to the width of the band or the level at which it is centred.
Barnabas Gan, RHB’s acting group chief economist and head of market research, said in a note on Friday that “a resilient economic backdrop will likely persuade MAS to keep its policy parameters unchanged in the upcoming quarters of 2025”.
He believes a “wait-and-see approach” may be needed before deciding to move policy parameters, given the sizeable risks for a re-inflationary climate.
