Friday 29 Mar 2024
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SINGAPORE (April 30): Investors sold shares ahead of tomorrow's Labour Day holiday, even as they pondered new data showing anaemic growth in 1Q2015 in the world's biggest economy and digested the Federal Reserve's assessment of the US labour market.

Hours before the Fed issued a statement after its two-day policy meeting, the US government said overnight that the economy expanded merely 0.2% in 1Q2015, down from 2.2% in 4Q2014.

"All in all, the FOMC statement gave a balanced assessment of the current economic slowdown and the committee remains very much in a data-dependent mode," Philip Marey, senior US strategist at Rabobank, wrote in a note.

"However, the balanced and cautious tone in the statement is a far cry from the optimism and (over)confidence that we have seen in previous statements," he said.

"This suggests that the large majority of doves in the committee is in no hurry to hike and instead is waiting for solid evidence that the economic recovery can actually deal with a rate hike."

At 10:29am (0229 GMT), the Straits Times Index was down 0.5% at 3,470.63. Market breadth was negative, with more than 1.5 decliners for every gainer.

OCBC fell 1.8% to $10.68 as it went ex-dividend. UOB, which went ex-dividend yesterday, also declined, down 0.4% at $24.32.

Both banks reported 1Q2015 results before trading started.

"The initial read was a better-than-expected number from OCBC, with UOB coming in in-line with analysts’ forecasts," said Nicholas Teo, an analyst at CMC Markets.

"Overall, there were no major surprises. Both banks executed well in growing their non-interest income components, especially in the wealth management and fees category," he said.

GCCP Resources, which made its trading debut on Catalist today, fell below its IPO price of 23 cents. It last traded at 18 cents.

Boustead Projects, which also debuted today, opened at 88 cents and last traded at 99.5 cents.

Boustead Projects is the real estate arm of Mainboard-listed Boustead Singapore, which distributed to its shareholders 49% of Boustead Projects’ shares for the listing.

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