SINGAPORE, (PNA/Xinhua) — Singapore shares closed up 0.05 percent on Tuesday, as investors braced for the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting at which it is widely expected to begin withdrawing stimulus.
Despite a lackluster August jobs report, the U.S. central bank is expected to begin scaling back its quantitative easing scheme by reducing its monthly asset purchases by about 10 billion U.S. dollars from the current 85 billion U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile, Singapore non-oil domestic exports data for August, which showed an unexpected 6.2 percent contraction on year, also somehow affected market sentiment.
Phillip Securities Research said the market seems to expect the start of tapering, but with only a small reduction due to previous mixed economic data numbers. It pegged key near term support at 3, 100 points levels.
OCBC Investment Research said the index to trade in a 3,140 points and 3,180 points range ahead of what could be the Federal Reserve’s commencement of tapering its bond-buying program.
Voyager Research said “we could see the index consolidating around current levels with support established at 3,160 points.”
Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index inched up 1.44 points to 3,180.92 points. Trading volume was 3.53 billion shares worth 1. 3 billion Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 282 to 175, while 500 stocks did not move.
Ezra Holdings sank 7.3 percent to 1.20 Singapore dollars. It has issued 25 million Singapore dollars principal amount of 5 percent Fixed Rate Notes due 2015. The net proceeds from the issue will principally be used by the company for financing general working capital, corporate purposes and to refinance existing borrowings of the company and its subsidiaries.
United Engineers inched up 0.3 percent to 1.80 Singapore dollars. It has entered into a deal to buy Hewlett-Packard’s freehold premises — an industrial building and a commercial office tower — for 402 million Singapore dollars. Hewlett-Packard will lease back the 12-storey office tower for three years, with two options to extend for periods of six months each, and will also lease back the eight-storey industrial building for five years, with three options to renew for five years each.
Among top gainers, Jardine Matheson surged 0.5 percent to 55.55 U.S. dollars, while Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by dropping 1.7 percent to 35.77 Singapore dollars.