Singapore shares tumbled on Thursday (Nov 3) alongside a sea of red across the regional markets, following overnight losses in Wall Street amid some confusion – and disappointment – over the messaging from the US Federal Reserve on the speed and extent of the monetary tightening path. The key Straits Times Index fell 1.2 per cent or 38.62 points to close at 3,102.51 points. Key gauges across the region posted losses with the sharpest falls in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia. Japan was closed on Thursday for a holiday. As widely expected, the Federal Reserve raised the Fed Funds target rate by 75 basis points to 3.75 to 4 per cent at its monetary policy meeting. This marks the Fed’s fourth successive supersized hike. On the local bourse, some 1.3 billion securities worth S$1.02 billion were traded. Losers outpaced gainers, with 313 counters down and 190 up. The losses were led by the trio of local lenders, with DBS, UOB and OCBC finishing 1.6 per cent, 0.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent lower, respectively. Singapore Post reported a record half-year revenue of S$958.9 million, but incurred a net loss of S$9.9 million for the six months ended September, owing to higher operating expenses and a higher put option redemption liability on its Australian subsidiary. Shares of SingPost finished 1.8 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$0.54 on Thursday. SIA Engineering recently reported a group net profit of nearly S$20 million for its second quarter ended September – up 88 per cent – on the back of a 38 per cent jump in revenue to S$191 million from a year ago.
Wall Street stocks retreated on Thursday as markets awaited key US jobs data, while taking in hawkish moves by major central banks. The latest decline came a day after the US Federal Reserve announced another sharp interest rate increase and said it was premature to think about pausing, which was followed shortly by a similar big move by Bank of England as part of the fight against inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 per cent to close at 32,001.25. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.1 per cent to 3,719.89, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.7 per cent to 10,342.94. Among individual companies, chipmaker Qualcomm plunged 7.7 per cent as it lowered its forecast for smartphone sales. The outlook weighed on smartphone giant Apple, which fell 4.2 per cent. Among other companies reporting results, eBay rose 2.0 per cent while Marriott International dropped 4.3 per cent.
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