Shares Gain Sharply
May 03, 2011
The 30-share Straits Times Industrials Index rose 31.79 to 2155.60. Total market volume was 146.8 million units valued at 367.0 million Singapore dollars. A total of 267 stocks closed higher, 97 lower, while another 187 ended unchanged. Among other closely followed market indexes, the DBS-50 Index, which is capitalization-weighted with shares from all sectors, rose 10.18 to 555.68. Also rising was the UOB-OTC index, which tracks Malaysian over-the-counter shares, adding 8.90 to 1186.12. Bullish sentiment was prevalent throughout most of the exchanges in the region. One reason for this could be that the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee late Tuesday decided to leave interest rates unchanged in the U.S. There was a mild buying program in the Singapore market and traders said that stocks of Singapore companies will continue to be seen favorably over their regional counterparts. Boosting market volumes included small-capitalization stocks as well as shares of companies being taken over. The takeovers of telecom equipment supplier Transmarco and paint maker Berger International have recently aroused some speculative sentiment. The most active stock was civil engineering group Guthrie GTS, which chalked up a volume of seven million shares. The stock gained 5.5 Singapore cents to 70 cents. The biggest index-linked gainer Wednesday was blue-chip automobile distributor and property group Cycle & Carriage, which rose 40 cents to S$13.60 on 454,000 shares traded. One of the top gainers was the foreign share of blue-chip company Singapore Press Holdings, which added 90 cents to S$25.50 on 318,000 shares. Among the top actives included the stock of Transmarco, which surged at the opening to an intraday high of S$11.90. The stock, which resumed trading Wednesday after a late Tuesday suspension, gained 5 cents to S$9.95. Among the leading losers was the stock of Dillard, which fell 6 cents to S$1.52 on 1.5 million shares. The stock fell for the first time after the weekend announcement that a Malaysian group had made a general offer for the company at S$1.50 a share.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
