Source： Lianhe Zaobao

Reported by Xiang Xue

Recently, the US inflation and retail data have exceeded market expectations, causing the market's expectations for a hawkish rate hike by the US Federal Reserve to suddenly increase.

Asia-Pacific stock markets closed mixed on Tuesday (21 February). The Straits Times Index in Singapore fell by 1.89 points or 0.06% to close at 3,306.86 points.

Currently, the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season is coming to an end, but the Straits Times Index continues to be under pressure, mainly due to the market's cautious wait for the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting to be released on Thursday, as well as the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index to be released on Friday.

uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd Market Strategist James Ooi analysis: Straits Times Index hard to break through 3400 points in the short term

James Ooi, a market strategist for uSMART Securities (Singapore) Pte. Ltd, pointed out in an interview that the recent support level for the Straits Times Index (STI) is at 3250 points, while the resistance level remains at 3400 points. The STI is unlikely to break through this resistance level in the short term, as both the Hong Kong and US stock markets are currently in a correction cycle and the STI is likely to be affected. However, in the long term, the STI may even reach 3550 points by the end of this year.

In the Asia-Pacific stock market, the Shanghai stock market led the gains, rising 0.49%, while the Seoul and Shenzhen stock markets rose 0.16% and 0.12% respectively. The Taiwan stock market edged up 0.08%. The Hong Kong stock market fell 1.71%, while the Sydney and Tokyo stock markets both fell 0.21%.

In the local stock market, the total trading volume was 163 million shares, with a total transaction value of SGD 781.43 million. There were 241 stocks that rose and 240 stocks that fell. Of the STI component stocks, 10 rose, 12 fell, and 8 remained unchanged.

The biggest decliners were Keppel DC REIT and CapitaLand Investment, which fell 1.01% and 0.78% respectively, closing at SGD 1.97 and SGD 3.82. The biggest gainers were Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Genting Sing, with the former up 2.34% to SGD 1.31 and the latter up 1% to SGD 1.01.

In terms of individual stock news, Mencast Holdings announced that it has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange to transfer from the Mainboard to the Catalist board and will begin trading on February 23, with a stock code of 5NF. The company's stock price closed at SGD 0.049, up 6.52%.

Megachem announced that its net profit after tax for the 2022 fiscal year fell 24.1% year-on-year to SGD 6.1 million due to rising interest rates and increased costs, while revenue increased by 3.5% year-on-year to SGD 143.7 million. The board of directors has proposed a year-end dividend of 1.2 cents per share, with a total dividend of 2 cents for the year. The company's stock price closed at SGD 0.55, unchanged.

PanUnited announced that it will provide 360,000 cubic meters of carbon dioxide mineralized concrete for the first phase of the Tuas Port project, which will help reduce 113.8 million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to planting 1.9 million young tree or reducing 24,500 cars. The company's stock price closed at SGD 0.4, unchanged.

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