Singapore shares closed lower Friday, following a weak lead from Wall Street and mimicking the cautious trade seen across the region ahead of key U.S. payrolls data due later in the day.
"It was always going to be a struggle to put on any gains for the Straits Times Index today after such a bleak night of trading on Wall Street," said Justin Harper, market strategist at IG Markets Singapore. "The watchword across the region was caution ahead of a nervous weekend with non-farms and the Greek elections at the forefront of traders' minds," he added.
The benchmark STI closed 0.3%, or 10.35 points lower at 2,990.59, after trading in a narrow 10-point band throughout the day. For the week, the index has ground out a 0.3% gain. Losers outnumbered gainers 238 to 132 and volume was lower at 2.47 billion shares compared with 2.99 billion Thursday. The value of traded shares was S$865 million, compared with S$980 million Thursday.
Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts were in focus Friday, following news flow from two trusts.
Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust closed 3.8% lower at S$2.01, after saying late Thursday it had priced a private placement of 150 million new units at S$1.99 each, the lower end of its indicative range and a 4.8% discount to its last traded price. The trust will raise S$298.5 million to be used for asset enhancement as well as construction of various assets.
CapitaMall Trust ended down 0.6% at S$1.805, after saying Thursday it is selling its Hougang Plaza shopping mall for S$119.1 million to a unit of property developer Oxley Holdings. The trust will raise about S$117.8 million in net proceeds from the sale, for potential acquisitions and debt repayment.
Most blue chips in Singapore ended weaker, led by banks and some commodity stocks. DBS group fell 0.2% to S$14.19. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. fell 0.2% to S$8.96 and United Overseas Bank slid 1.6% to S$19.00.
Supply chain manager Noble Group lost 1.2% to S$1.21 and peer Olam International fell 0.9% to S$2.28.
Global Logistic Properties was the STI's best performer, ending 1.5% higher at S$2.09, while City Developments also outperformed, closing up 1.4% at S$10.59.
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