STI breaks 4,900 amid expectations for Fed to hold rates steady

[SINGAPORE] The Straits Times Index (STI) broke new ground on Tuesday (Jan 27) morning and crossed the 4,900 threshold for the first time.

As at 9.10 am, the benchmark index hit a historic record high of 4,912.46.

Two of Singapore’s trio of banks made gains of at least 1 per cent as at Tuesday morning. DBS was up 1.3 per cent at S$59.06 and OCBC rose 1 per cent to S$21.25. Meanwhile, UOB inched up 0.03 per cent to S$38.51.

Several STI constituents were among the top traded counters on the Singapore Exchange as at 9.34 am. These included Singtel, which was up 2 per cent at S$4.55, with some 8.1 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded STI members included Chinese vesselmaker Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which was up 1.2 per cent at S$3.35, and Wilmar International, which was up 3 per cent at S$3.45.

Real estate investment trusts (Reits) were also trading higher on Tuesday morning. CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.9 per cent to S$2.38, Mapletree Industrial Trust climbed 1 per cent to S$2.12 and Keppel Reit jumped 0.5 per cent to S$0.985.

This comes on the back of expectations for the US Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady this week and halt its rate-cutting cycle. Several of the US central bank’s officials have suggested that rates are now well-positioned to support employment while keeping downward pressure on inflation, after three consecutive cuts.