The Singapore Market this Week: STI Hit a Two-Year High
The Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), the local stock market bellwether, hit a two-year high of 3,354.71 points on Thursday before taking a breather and settling down at 3,330.75 points on Friday evening. Week-on-week, the increase was around 17 points or 0.5%.
Despite the STI putting on a decent show, most of the components did not see gains; 15 were in the red, two were flat and 13 were in the green.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Limited (SGX: O39) was the biggest gainer in the index. Its shares put on 2.7% to S$11.39. The bank saw its second quarter total income grow 17% year-on-year to S$2.40 billion, with net profit surging 22% to S$1.08 billion.
On the other side of the spectrum, things are not looking too good for aircraft engineering firm, SIA Engineering Company Limited (SGX: S59). It pared 10.8% to end the week at S$3.62. For the first quarter, net profit plunged 81.8% year-on-year to S$36.2 million even though revenue was stable for the period. Keen competition in its industry is making it harder for the business to engineer higher profits.
Elsewhere, Mapletree Logistics Trust (SGX: M44U) and Mapletree Commercial Trust (SGX: N2IU) both lost ground for the week, despite posting gains in distribution per unit for their respective first quarters. Units in the former declined 0.8% to S$1.2 while the latter dropped 0.3% to S$1.605. For the earnings coverage of Mapletree Logistic Trust’s, click here and for the Mapletree Commercial Trust’s, check out the link here.
The shares of Rowsley Limited (SGX: A50) have gone on a wild ride since the firm announced that it would be foraying into the healthcare sector. The firm will be “purchasing a 100% stake in Thomson Medical Pte Ltd and a 70.36% stake in TMC Life Sciences Berhad (0101.KL), a company listed in Malaysia”. Rowsley’s shares closed at S$0.110 on Friday, after touching a pinnacle of S$0.198 last week.
The STI ETF (SGX: ES3), an index tracker which can be taken as a proxy for the Straits Times Index, is now valued at 13.4 times trailing earnings and has a dividend yield of 2.9%.
