Singapore posts Biggest gain since Sept!

May 1, 2008

S'pore bourse posts biggest monthly gain since Sept
By Alvin Foo, Markets Correspondent

FEW investors dared to stick their necks out yesterday to take fresh positions on Singapore stocks. And no one could fault them, given that the eagerly awaited United States Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and the release of key first-quarter US economic growth data were due out last night - well after the Singapore market had closed.

So it came as little surprise when the Straits Times Index (STI) dipped 24.57 points to 3,147.79 mainly on profit taking.

Despite yesterday's downturn, the STI managed to gain 4.7 per cent for the whole of April - the index's biggest monthly advance since last September.

'Some players chose to take an early Labour Day break. Fund managers were also busy locking in gains to prop up their month-end portfolios,' said a dealer.

The cautious mood was evident in the thin volume - just 1.34 billion shares traded.

In contrast, the average daily volume was 1.8 billion shares valued at $1.96 billion last week.

However, the total value of trades yesterday was high - at $2.25 billion - as investors sold down blue chips such as Keppel Corp and SingTel. Market players were awaiting the results of the Fed meeting, due out overnight, in which analysts were expecting a 0.25 percentage point cut in a key US interest rate.

They were also looking out for the first release of advance estimates on first-quarter US gross domestic product data. Back home, CapitaLand was on the radar screen after it reported that first-quarter profit fell 59 per cent to $247.5 million, as one-off gains which boosted income a year earlier were not repeated. It slid 18 cents to $6.79 for its biggest dip in two weeks.

Other property plays also suffered declines. City Developments retreated 34 cents to $12.10, while Keppel Land dropped a cent to $6.06. In contrast, China stocks listed in Singapore rallied as they rode on the coat tails of Shanghai's dazzling 4.82 per cent charge yesterday.

The FTSE ST China Index, which consists of 50 China plays in Singapore, rose 1.1 per cent to 480.84. Cosco Corp was in the limelight before it released bright first-quarter numbers after the close of trading. It gained eight cents to $3.16.

There was also cheer for Parkway Holdings, after Malaysia's state investment arm Khazanah Nasional said it was taking a substantial stake in the health-care group. Parkway closed up 10 cents at $3.50 for its highest finish since March 2.