Singapore Market ends in red

The Singapore stock market finished session lower on Friday, 02 December 2022, as investors opted to book profit made recently on tracking losses on Wall Street overnight and on caution ahead to the November US jobs report due later in the day.

Investors are keenly watching for the non-farm payroll data for clues of the Fed's interest rate decision this month, as the central bank has said its move will be data dependent.

Equity markets have benefited this week from comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicating that the U.S. central bank is considering slowing the pace of its interest rate increases at its final policy-setting meeting later this month.

At closing bell, the Straits Times Index (STI) index was down 33.59 points or 1.02% to 3,259.14 after trading between 3,259.14 and 3,287.23. Volume was 1.20 billion shares worth S$1.11 billion changed hands. There were 254 gainers and 241 decliners. For the week, the STI rose 0.6%.

Shares of ground handler and inflight caterer Sats fell 2.9%, a day after the company unveiled its funding structure for the proposed acquisition of air cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services. The mainboard-listed firm said it would raise up to S$800 million via a renounceable underwritten rights issue to partially fund the deal.

Shares of digital Core Reit, a data centre real estate investment trust, slumped 5.7%, a day after announcing it intends to proceed with an all-debt-funded acquisition of a 25% interest in a Frankfurt facility for US$140 million, aborting an earlier plan for equity fundraising.

Far East Orchard's shares climbed nearly 1%, as the company completed the disposal of its four strata office lots in the Tanglin Shopping Center, a freehold office-cum-shopping complex in Singapore, to Hillthorpe Investments, an unrelated party.

Shares of Straits Trading was up nearly 1%, as the Singaporean investment company completed the acquisition of a portfolio of properties within Gloucester Business Park in Gloucestershire, UK, for 122 million British pounds.

Asiaphos shares closed 6% higher, a day after the company disclosed that the sale of certain factory assets in China has been delayed due to the imposition of the COVID-19 lockdown in Mianzhu City, China.

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