Singapore share prices closed at an all-time high on Wednesday as investors cheered reports of an end to US rate increases and ignored soaring oil prices, dealers said.
They said local investor sentiment got an added boost from a research report by Merrill Lynch which predicted the benchmark index rising to 2,840 by the end of the year.
"Stocks that Merrill Lynch recommended in their report are going up, like Fraser and Neave, DBS and UOB. Those are the three top gainers today and these are heavyweight index stocks pushing up the index," a Singapore dealer said.
The Straits Times Index jumped 26.59 points to 2,585.84, beating the previous record high of 2,582.94 set in January 2000.
Volume traded totalled 2.82 billion shares worth 2.10 billion Singapore dollars (1.32 billion US).
Gainers outpaced losers 458 to 225 with 507 shares unchanged.
"Regional bourses and Wall Street are quite strong ... so sentiment still seems quite good," said a dealer with a local brokerage, pegging the new psychological resistance at 2,600 points.
Minutes of last month's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) showed that the Federal Reserve - the US central bank - was close to ending its policy of gradual rate increases 15 quarter-point rises.
At last month's meeting, the Fed raised its base rate by 25 basis points to 4.75 percent. Most analysts expect another increase at the May FOMC meeting, but experts have been divided on policy actions after that.
Among the big winners for the day were food and beverage firm Fraser and Neave which rose 0.70 to 22.50, lender DBS Group which gained 0.30 to 17.00 and United Overseas Bank which added 0.30 to 16.10.
Singapore Exchange which climbed 0.26 to 4.44 and Venture Corp which advanced 0.20 to 12.50 were also key gainers.
Blue chips closed mostly higher with Singapore Airlines gaining 0.20 to 13.90, Singapore Telecommunications rising 0.04 to 2.710 and Singapore Press Holdings flat at 4.380.
The technology sector also closed higher with Creative posting gains of 0.20 to 10.20, STATS ChipPac up 0.02 to 1.270 and ST Engineering flat at 3.30.
Property stock Keppel Land ended up 0.28 at 4.78, CapitaLand added 0.06 to 4.960 and City Developments gained 0.10 to 10.400.
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