Singapore shares end morning higher after Wall Street rebound

Singapore shares end morning higher after Wall Street rebound

	Published : Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:08 By : Agencies Print this Story

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Singapore share prices ended the morning session higher Thursday after Wall Street's rebound Wednesday encouraged bargain-hunting.

COSCO Corp (Singapore) led the gains, with the stock hitting a new record high for the third time this week after the company said 51 pct-owned unit COSCO Shipyard Group had won shipbuilding and ship conversion contracts together worth 563 million US dollars.

At the break, the Straits Times Index was 37.30 points or 1.04 percent higher at 3,632.24.

Gainers were beating losers 532 to 294, with 265 stocks unchanged.

The volume traded was 2.19 billion shares worth 1.56 billion Singapore dollars.

A dealer with a local brokerage said: 'The rebound on Wall Street overnight has encouraged some bargain-hunting.'

But investors are unlikely to chase up prices vigorously until they get confirmation of their expectations that second-quarter corporate earnings were strong, reflecting robust economic growth here.

The bulk of corporate earnings reports are due to be released later in July through August.

Overnight here, Singapore Press Holdings reported its results for its financial third quarter ended May, which showed that the media group's net profit eased 8.5 percent year-on-year to 159.78 million dollars in the absence of exceptional gains it made a year before. In the morning, SPH gained six cents at 4.56 dollars.

Banking shares rebounded from Wednesday's falls, with DBS Group up 20 cents at 23.70 dollars, United Overseas Bank up 40 cents at 22.80 dollars and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp up 10 cents at 9.50 dollars.

COSCO Singapore added 36 cents at 5.00 dollars, off an all-time high of 5.20 dollars. Other shipyard stocks were higher, with Keppel Corp up 20 cents at 12.60 dollars and SembCorp Marine up 15 cents at 5.35 dollars.

Neptune Orient Lines gained 25 cents at 5.90 dollars after the company and its partners, Hyundai Merchant Marine of South Korea, Mitsui OSK Lines of Japan, CMA CGM of France and DP World of Dubai were awarded the right to equip and run the first container terminal at Maasvlakte 2 in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

Shares in water treatment specialist Hyflux Ltd rose 33 cents to an 18-month high of 3.30 dollars, on hopes that its earnings will start to grow in the second half as new projects start to make contributions.

(1 US dollars = 1.51 Singapore dollars)

TFN.Singapore@thomson.com

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