SINGAPORE, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Singapore shares closed 0.36 percent higher on Wednesday, as bargain hunting emerged following earlier sharp fall after U.S. President Donald Trump called off stimulus talks till after the November election.
U.S. markets fell sharply later on Tuesday after President Trump instructed his team to stop negotiations with the democrats on stimulus until after the election. Earlier, market players were already jittery when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that the coronavirus-ravaged U.S. economy will stumble without additional fiscal support.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices fell on concerns of political disarray following Trump's instruction, although loss was limited on reports the Saudi Arabia were raising November prices modestly to Asia.
MayBank-Kim Eng Retail Research said "technically, the Straits Times Index could pull back below its 50-day moving average towards 20-day moving average support at 2,490 points with upside resistance at 2,570 points."
Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 9.1 points to 2,538.36 points. Trading volume was 1.01 billion shares worth 921.54 million Singapore dollars. Advancers outnumbered decliners 201 to 187.
Yanlord Land inched down 0.89 percent to 1.12 Singapore dollars. Together with joint ventures and associates, the contracted pre-sales rose 23.9 percent to 5.42 billion Chinese yuan in September on higher gross floor area (gfa) of 159,171 square meters. This brought year-to-date pre-sales to 53.19 billion Chinese yuan on gfa of 1.44 million square meters. Suzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Shanghai accounted for about 78.6 percent of the aggregate pre-sales in the first nine months of the year.
Among top gainers, AEM Holdings rose 2.21 percent to 3.7 Singapore dollars, while Singapore Exchange became one of the top losers by falling 0.44 percent to 9.08 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 6.789 Chinese yuan or 1.36 Singapore dollars) Enditem
