Singapore's shares started the Year of the Snake on an auspicious note, ending Wednesday at a five-year closing high amid broad-based gains.
"People are playing a bit of catchup on trades or opportunities they might have missed over the past couple days," said Jason Hughes, head of premium client management at IG Markets Singapore.
While many investment banks are shifting from "very bullish" to more modestly bullish, "they're seeing potential pullbacks as buying opportunities. It's feeding through to the rest of the market," he said. "Even before the Chinese New Year break, we were getting positive data out of China, and that has really filtered through to market sentiment this week."
The 30-share Straits Times Index is up 30.74 points, or 0.9%, at 3301.04, its highest close since Jan 10, 2008. The stock market was closed Monday and Tuesday for the Lunar New Year holiday. Volume was heavily skewed toward penny stocks, with 8.22 billion shares valued at only S$1.76 billion changing hands.
Among China-exposed stocks, shopping-mall operator CapitaMalls Asia added 2.4% to $2.15, and Hongkong Land gained 3.3% to US$8.05.
StarHub gained 3.1% to S$4.05, erasing Friday's 2.0% drop after some analysts expressed disappointment with its dividend.
Casino-resort operator Genting Singapore, a usual beneficiary of the Lunar New Year season, tacked on 1.6% to $1.625.
On the downside, Singapore Airlines was the worst-performing STI component, dropping 2.2% to $10.83.
"It's a delayed reaction to the earnings. The share price was up quite a bit before that. The decline is not unexpected," said Siyi Lim, an analyst at OCBC. After the market close Feb. 7, SIA reported that its third-quarter net profit rose 5.4% on year to $142.5 million, below some analysts' forecasts.
ComfortDelGro shed 0.3% to $1.90 in the wake of several analyst downgrades after the transit operator reported that its full-year net profit rose 5.6% on year to $248.9 million.
"It is difficult to justify ComfortDelGro's current lofty valuations, given its recent price surge, the muted growth expectations and unexciting dividend yields. It is now time to take profit," said Bernard Chin, an analyst at Maybank-Kim Eng, in a note.
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