SINGAPORE (Jan 8): The Singapore Exchange (SGX) saw a sea of red on Wednesday morning, as investors woke to news that Iran had fired a series of missiles at two US-Iraqi airbases.
The attacks are believed to be in retaliation for the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by American forces last week.
The Straits Times Index (STI) opened 36.58 points lower, or down 1.12%, on Wednesday.
The benchmark index continue to fall to as low as 3,193.31 points – some 1.68% lower than the previous close of 3,247.86 points on Tuesday – before paring some of the losses.
As at 1.11pm on Wednesday, the STI is trading at 3,227.10 points, down 20.76 points or 0.64%, with all but three of the 30 STI constituent stocks trading lower.
Holding the fort against the sea of red is Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering), the aerospace, electronics, land systems and marine sector conglomerate with interests in the military and defence space.
ST Engineering’s land systems arm, in particular, delivers specialty vehicles, including tanks, for defence, homeland security and commercial applications.
As at 1.11pm on Wednesday, shares in ST Engineering are trading 1.5% higher at $4.08.
The other two STI constituent stocks that that are holding up are Ascendas REIT and CapitaLand Mall Trust, which are up 0.3% to $3.03 and 0.4% to $2.47, respectively.
