On Wednesday (19 Feb) morning, Singapore stocks rose after the Budget 2020 announcement the previous day. The losses of Tuesday have been reversed with the budget announcement which highlights the provision of S$5.6 billion to aid households, workers and firms to combat the Covid-19 outbreak.
The newest budget also maintains emphasis on the future, such as economic transformation as well as climate change.
The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) opened at 3,199.8, which is 3.17 points or 0.1 per cent higher. The STI was trading up at 3,219.47, which is 22.84 points or 0.7 per cent higher.
On Tuesday (18 Feb), with investors focusing on Apple’s warning about its revenue loss from the Covid-19 epidemic and economic slowdown, the STI plunged for a fourth day by 16.37 points or 0.5 per cent. This also includes the cancellation of flights by Singapore Airlines across its global network for the next three months due to the weakened demand as a result of the virus outbreak.
Wednesday’s most heavily traded volume were AEM Holdings which rose by S$0.05 or 2.3 per cent to S$2.22 at 9.02 am with one million shares traded as well as ESR-Reit which was flat S$0.53 with 1.6 million shares traded at 9.06 am.
The three banks, DBS, UOB and OCBC remained in the red. On Wednesday at 9.02 am, DBS dropped S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent to S$25.25, UOB dropped S$0.07 or 0.3 per cent to S$25.74 and OCBC dropped S$0.04 or 0.4 per cent to S$10.93. All three banks had closed lower on Tuesday.
The country’s largest telco, Singtel was unchanged on Wednesday morning at S$3.17. It fell 1.3 per cent to close at that value yesterday. Last Thursday (13 Feb), Singtel reported its Q3 earnings, following which its shares dropped 6 per cent.
In the early trading session, recovery could be seen in aviation stocks after extra measures were introduced in the budget such as rental waivers and property tax rebates for aviation and other sectors that were impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Ground handler Sats saw its stocks rose S$0.03 or 0.7 per cent to S$4.51 whereas Singapore Airlines’ stocks rose S$0.03 or 0.4 per cent to S$8.54.
As for Great Eastern, its stock rose S$0.16 or 0.7 per cent to S$21.98. Also, OCBC’s insurance arm announced on Wednesday morining its net profit of S$287 million for Q4, which is more than double the S$136.9 million last year.
On Tuesday, Wall Street closed lower due to the worries over the Covid-19 outbreak and the impact on Apple. Apple’s share price dropped 1.8 per cent to US$319 after it announced on Monday that March’s quarter revenue forecast will not be met, and global iPhone supplies will dwindle.
In Japan, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday as investors recalibrated their positions in the wake of fears regarding the effect of the outbreak.
