SINGAPORE stocks ended higher on Monday (Jun 3), tracking gains in the region.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.4 per cent or 12.28 to 3,348.87. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 345 to 237, after 1.4 billion securities worth S$1.4 billion changed hands.
Indices in the region mostly ended higher. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.1 per cent, the Hang Seng Index gained 1.8 per cent, and the Kospi Composite Index was up 1.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slid 0.5 per cent.
Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG, noted that a late-night bounce in Wall Street last week had caught the bears by surprise, and put a halt to the recent bout of profit-taking in major US indices. This set Asia equities up for a positive session.
Furthermore, market participants also found some comfort that the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data did not trigger much inflation surprise, he said.
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US headline and core PCE price indices both matched expectations on a year-on-year basis, which offered some conviction that inflation is on track for further softening, Yeap added.
On the STI, DFI Retail Group was the biggest gainer, rising 7.1 per cent or US$0.13 to US$1.97.
The biggest decliner was Genting Singapore, which fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.90.
The three local banks ended higher on Monday. DBS gained 0.2 per cent or S$0.08 to S$36.07, OCBC was up 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$14.55, while UOB gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.09 to S$30.88.
