Singapore share prices edged to a new record high on Wednesday as stronger regional markets renewed buying interest, dealers said. The Straits Times Index finished up 26.09 points or 0.75 percent at a new closing high of 3,501.17, narrowly beating the previous record of 3,501.10 set on Monday.
Volume was 2.31 billion shares worth 1.91 billion dollars (1.27 billion US). Gainers beat losers 495 to 265, with 687 issues unchanged. "Some individual stocks are moving in response to earnings results, but apart from that, there's nothing much happening," a dealer with a local brokerage, who declined to be named, said.
"Investors are buying on value, on momentum and on portfolio readjustment. With the earnings results completed, it's crunch time for fund managers and analysts to review their portfolios and there's always a lot of readjustments done after the corporate results are over," Gabriel Yap, of DMG Partners Securities Pte Ltd, said. Going forward, he expects a rotational shift by investors into small capitalisation stocks.
Property heavyweights were key contributors to the main index's rise, with Keppel Land up 0.05 at 9.45, City Developments rising 0.40 to 16.90 and CapitaLand up 0.20 at 8.40. Blue chips were mixed, with ST Engineering up 0.06 at 3.58 and Singapore Telecommunications up 0.06 at 3.46, while Singapore Airlines fell 0.20 to 18.50.
Among banking stocks, United Overseas Bank rose 0.10 to 22.80 and DBS Banking Group put on 0.20 to 23.90. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp was flat at 9.35. In the technology sector, Chartered Semiconductor was up 0.01 at 1.26, STATS ChipPAC gained 0.03 to 1.80 and United Test Assembly Center put on 0.01 to 0.845. Venture Corp was flat at 15.10, while Creative Technology was also flat at 8.35. Genting International was up 0.030 to 0.925 and Thai Beverage rose 0.005 to 0.270.