Weekly wrap of STI:
It was a mixed week for STI as after shorten previous trading week, investors were cautious even not so active in trading.
STI opens @3288.24 and then it try to crossed 3300 mark and opens with gap on higher side for 3 days and made week high @ 3311.67 and them it traded below the opening level and made low of 3274.86 and finally closed @ 3288.13 near to opening level with gain of 5.06 up by 0.15% wow basis.
Economic data:
- Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose marginally by 0.5 % in 2012, led by higher non-electronic exports, after growing 2.2 % in 2011. NODX forecast for 2013 is expected to come in between 2 and 4%.
- Singapore’s economy grew by 1.5% in 4Q12, better than the street’s expectations of a 1.2% growth, as well as the zero growth seen in 3Q12.
- On a seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, the economy expanded by 3.3% QoQ, compared to the 4.6% contraction in 3Q12.
- Manufacturing grew by 3.1% QoQ vs 3Q12’s 16.6% decline, largely due to a rebound in biomedical output and transport engineering.
- Construction contracted by 3.9% while services grew by 2.5% QoQ. All these factors brought 2012 growth to 1.3%.
- For 2013, the official growth forecast is maintained at 1.0- 3.0%, but key risks include the fiscal cutback in the US and the Euro zone debt crisis.