Trump-Xi meeting fails to lift Singapore stocks on May 14; STI dips 0.2%
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Across the broader market, gainers trail losers 257 to 359, after 2.2 billion securities worth $2.6 billion change hands
ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI
Jude Chan
- Singapore stocks closed lower on May 14, with the STI falling 0.2% after the US-China meeting failed to lift investor sentiment.
- Singtel and local banks climbed, yet Frasers Logistics and ComfortDelGro declined. Key regional indexes exhibited mixed results.
- SPI Asset Management noted the US-China meeting indicated "great power coexistence," acknowledging interdependence rather than rebuilt trust.
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SINGAPORE - Stocks on the Singapore Exchange ended lower on May 14, as a much-anticipated meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump failed to lift investor sentiment.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.2 per cent or 8.02 points to finish at 4,995.94.
Across the broader market, losers outpaced gainers 359 to 257, after 2.2 billion securities worth $2.6 billion changed hands.
Singtel led the gainers on Singapore’s blue-chip index, rising 1 per cent or five cents to $4.87. The worst performer among the STI constituents was Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, which fell 3.6 per cent or 3½ cents to 94 cents.
The three local banks ended higher. DBS gained 0.4 per cent or 23 cents to close at $60.13, OCBC rose 0.3 per cent or six cents to $22.95. UOB was up 0.1 per cent or two cents at $37.37.
Within the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index, Pan-United Corporation was the top gainer, rising 6.1 per cent or 10 cents to $1.73. Meanwhile, ComfortDelGro was the top loser, falling 6.3 per cent or nine cents to end the session at $1.33.
Key regional indexes were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended largely flat, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.8 per cent, and Malaysia’s KLCI declined 0.04 per cent.
“President Donald Trump’s arrival in Beijing felt less like a traditional diplomatic visit and more like the opening ceremony for a new phase of great power coexistence,” said SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes.
“What markets are witnessing is not the rebuilding of trust. It is interdependence being reluctantly acknowledged,” he added.
“The world’s two largest powers are beginning to understand that economic coexistence may be ugly, uncomfortable, and deeply transactional, but outright fracture would likely detonate the very system both still depend on for growth and stability.” THE BUSINESS TIMES
