Singapore share prices closed 0.66 percent higher on Monday led by blue chips ahead of second quarter results while Friday's gains on Wall Street gave sentiment an additional boost, dealers said.
The Straits Times Index gained 15.99 points to 2,445.43 on volume of 1.01 billion shares worth 1.45 billion Singapore dollars (919 million US). Gainers led losers 308 to 244 while 660 issues were unchanged. Dealers noted that the local equity market is building up steam ahead of National Day on August 9, with investors interested in index-heavy stocks.
"Investors want the market to run up, but do not want to give their full commitment yet amid the uncertainty in the Middle East and a deadlock in the world trade talks in Europe," a dealer with a local brokerage said. "More positive news is needed to pump up the market," he said. The World Trade Organization's Doha round of talks was suspended last week after a failure by six major trading powers to reach a compromise on tariffs and subsidies.
With this "guarded anticipation of better things to come", the dealer said he expects the index to rise to the 2,700-2,800 points level ahead of the 41st National Day.
Among blue chips, Singapore Telecommunications rose 0.03 to 2.59, Singapore Press Holdings gained 0.02 to 3.90 and ST Engineering rose 0.04 to 2.83. Singapore Telecommunications and ST Engineering are both to announce quarterly results this week. Singapore Airlines was down 0.20 to 13.00 a day before announcing its results.
Technology stocks performed well, with STATS ChipPAC up 0.030 at 0.895, Venture Corp up 0.20 at 10.70, and Chartered Semiconductor up 0.01 at 1.08. Banking and property stocks were mixed. OCBC rose 0.05 to 6.35, United Overseas Bank - which is to announce quarterly results on Tuesday - gained 0.10 to 15.60, while DBS Group fell 0.10 to 18.10.
The bank's stock was hurt by a rating downgrade by OCBC Investment Research to a "hold" from a "buy", which said the stock is trading close to its increased fair value of 19.30. As for property heavyweights, Keppel Land was up 0.14 at 3.92, while City Developments was down 0.10 at 8.95 and CapitaLand was down 0.08 at 4.10.