Singaporean Stocks: U.S. Data Worries Investors
May 3, 2001
Dow Jones Newswires
SINGAPORE -- Shares ended slightly lower Thursday on profit-taking, as investors turned cautious ahead of Friday's U.S. economic data and the extended local holiday weekend.
The Straits Times Index surrendered its morning gains from overnight spillover buy orders to edge 3.43 points, or 0.2%, lower to 1734.23. The DBS-50 index, which gives greater weighting to the largest stocks and excludes foreign-currency issues, declined 0.6 point, or 0.1%, to 580.19.
Advancers outnumbered decliners 325 to 308, with 225 stocks unchanged. Trading volume fell to 538.9 million shares from Wednesday's 688.2 million shares.
After two weeks of solid rallying that helped push the STI up to its current levels from the 1500s, Thursday's decline was a reasonable correction, dealers said. Strong interest in the local bourse is likely to continue in the next two weeks. Dealers said investors are awaiting the release of the new provisional Morgan Stanley Capital International index May 19, a possible U.S. interest rate cut at the May 20 Federal Reserve meeting, and the launch of Exchange-Traded Funds Friday.
The MSCI index is a closely watched benchmark for many fund managers and is known to exert strong influences on their investment decisions.
ETFs are mutual funds or investment trusts that invest in stocks of a specific index. They are the latest in a string of new derivative offerings designed to draw funds and investor interest to the Singapore market.
United Overseas Bank ended flat at 11.80 Singapore dollars, Oversea-Chinese Banking was also unchanged at S$11.30 and DBS Group Holdings fell 0.6% to S$16.10.
Major technology plays held up well, despite the overall 1% fall in the electronic subindex. Creative Technology rose 1.7% to S$18. Venture Manufacturing was unchanged at S$13.20, and Chartered Semiconductor was similarly unchanged at S$5.85. Datacraft Asia fell 0.9% to US$5.30.
Singapore Press Holdings shares closed unchanged at S$21.40, having recently gained on reports of the possible divestment of its stakes in phone operator MobileOne and Singapore Cable Vision.
Among other Singapore bellwethers, Singapore Airlines also ended unchanged at S$14, and City Developments rose 2.3% to S$6.55.
The day's most actively traded stock Pacific Century Regional Development surged 7.5% to 72 Singapore cents, on volume of 91.2 million shares. Dealers say the stock is grossly undervalued, based on its biggest asset, Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Cyberworks. Kim Eng Securities' Web site Kelive estimates PCRD's fair value at S$1.10.
But most penny stocks lost their fizzle as retail investors cashed out after some quick gains. North 22 Tech Services dropped 12.5% to 7 cents, Tianjin Zhong Xin Pharmaceutical gave up 9.7% to 51.5 U.S. cents, and MediaRing.com fell 5.9% to 16 cents.
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