Shares of S’pore banks stabilise after recent decline; SGX cuts board lots: Markets this week
Analysts expect further volatility in bank shares amid earnings concerns and global bond market risks.
Singapore's three local banks experienced a stabilization in their stock prices towards the end of the week after two days of losses. DBS Bank fell 0.66% to close at $73.36, while UOB and OCBC declined 0.29% to $39.96 and remained flat at $29, respectively, experiencing losses of over 5% and 8.63% over the week. The market volatility stemmed from Citi's downgrade of OCBC to “sell” due to softer-than-expected third-quarter earnings expectations.
Charu Chanana, a chief investment strategist at Saxo, suggested that profit-taking and concerns about earnings expectations contributed to the downward trend. The recent declines, however, are not anticipated to signal a prolonged downturn across the banking sector, given the lenders' strong capital positions and dividend support.
SGX, Singapore Exchange, cut the board lot size for 11 stocks, including DBS, UOB, OCBC, and SGX, to make them more affordable for investors.
Written by urgent.news from Straits Times Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
