SINGAPORE (Mar 27): Tthe benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 2.47% on Friday morning, after Singapore unveiled a second stimulus package worth $48.4 billion to give the economy a shot in the arm against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Resilience Budget came amid the biggest contraction in Singapore’s economy in a decade.
For 1Q2020, gross domestic product fell 2.2% year-on-year, faring worse than the median forecast of a 1.4% decline in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
On an annualised quarter-on-quarter basis, 1Q GDP fell 10.6% from the previous three months, missing the median forecast of an 8.2% decline.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) was one of the rare losers on the STI on Friday, after the company announced it is undertaking a renounceable rights issue of new shares in the company and mandatory convertible bonds (MCB) to raise up to $15 billion.
The move is seen as a last-ditch effort of sorts to rescue SIA from crumbling, amid the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to the near-cessation of international air travel.
See: Singapore Airlines to raise $15 bil via rights issue of new shares, mandatory convertible bonds
Companies on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) found some reprieve this week, after being battered relentlessly over the past two weeks on the back of fears of a prolonged coronavirus pandemic.
Notably, a surprise decision by the US Federal Reserve on March 15 to slash interest rates had failed to calm the global financial markets. But now, more central banks have joined in with moves to ease liquidity.
Investors had started fleeing for cover after the World Health Organization on March 11 declared the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak a pandemic.
Amid the uncertainty stemming from Covid-19 as well as other geopolitical events such as the Saudi-led oil price war which saw the collapse of oil prices on March 9, The Edge Singapore is keeping track of the component stocks on STI, a capitalisation-weighted stock market index that tracks the performance of the top 30 companies listed on the SGX.
This valuation table will be updated at noon each day.
