The Straits Times Index closed at 5,699.21 on Tuesday, down 56.15 points, or 0.98%, after touching an intraday high of 5,770.33 early in the session and drifting lower to finish just above the day's low of 5,694.39. Decliners outpaced advancers 24 to 4 among the benchmark's 30 constituents, with two names unchanged, as Monday's leading groups — the three local banks and the broader REIT complex — reversed course and Sembcorp Industries stood out as the session's lone standout gainer.

Tuesday unwound much of Monday's advance. DBS, OCBC and UOB all turned lower together, ending a two-session run of synchronized gains, while REIT names including CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust fell in step after rallying broadly a session earlier. Local market commentary described Tuesday as opening firm before fading, with the index down to an intraday read of 5,749.56 by the morning session before extending losses into the close; decliners led advancers 92 to 78 across the broader market. Within the STI's own 30 names the imbalance was starker still, with only four constituents higher on the day.

Session Movers

Sembcorp Industries (U96.SG, +2.36%) was the session's standout gainer, extending a climb tied to its Indian renewables arm's push toward a public listing; local market commentary also named it the broader market's top gainer for the session. Sembcorp Green Infra has filed a preliminary prospectus with Indian regulators for an IPO targeting up to US$500 million, with installed capacity slated to grow to 7.3 GW by 2028 and the India renewables business projected to lift group profit from S$50 million-S$60 million this year to around S$110 million by 2028; the company has cautioned the listing still depends on market conditions and regulatory approval. The news has continued to outweigh a softer set of first-half numbers disclosed Aug. 27, with underlying net profit down 25% to S$369 million on weak renewables and Alinta acquisition costs, even as management raised the interim dividend by 22%. Consensus rates the stock Buy with a S$6.53 target, implying about 7.7% upside; shares trade at 17.62 times earnings, above their own five-year range and cheaper than just 0.77% of the past five years — among the richest valuations the stock has carried.

DFI Retail Group (D01.SG, -4.31%) posted the session's sharpest decline, unwinding most of Monday's 5.1% jump that had been driven by its expanding GNC partnership. Local market commentary flagged the counter as Tuesday's single biggest decliner across the broader market, with no fresh company disclosure behind the reversal — a mirror image of Monday's move, when the stock led gains after its exclusive GNC distribution tie-up across Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau was confirmed to extend into three more regions ahead of a fourth-quarter store rollout alongside its Guardian outlets. Consensus still rates the stock Strong Buy with a S$5.04 target, implying about 42% upside, with shares trading at 0.58 times sales, cheaper than about 57% of the past year.

CapitaLand Ascendas REIT (A17U.SG, -1.63%) fell alongside the rest of the REIT complex, giving back part of Monday's sector-wide advance. The REIT's most recent disclosures remain from early August, when it reported first-half net property income up 6.2% to S$556.1 million on S$1.1 billion of completed acquisitions and guided to a further S$600 million of purchases in the second half, even as distribution per unit rose just 0.1% despite net income jumping 58.5% on a S$199.9 million one-off gain. DBS has kept a Buy rating with a S$3.20 target since that update. Shares trade at 1.05 times book, cheaper than roughly 99% of the past five years; consensus rates the stock Strong Buy with a S$3.08 target, implying about 27% upside.

Singtel (Z74.SG, -1.76%) slipped despite fresh dealmaking around its data-centre and venture arms. DBS, alongside OCBC and UOB, provided a S$5 billion sustainability-linked loan backing Singtel and KKR's acquisition of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), with DBS acting as mandated lead arranger and sustainability coordinator on terms tied to renewable-energy usage and green data-centre targets. Separately, Singtel Innov8 joined SMBC's Asia Rising Fund in a private investment into fileAI, a 1982 Ventures-backed startup, to support its Japan expansion and the launch of a new enterprise data-mapping product. Neither disclosure stopped the stock from falling in step with the broader market; consensus rates it Buy with a S$5.36 target, implying about 20% upside, with shares trading at 20.92 times earnings, cheaper than about a third of the past five years.

One point worth noting

For a second straight session, breadth moved in the same direction as the index: Tuesday's 24-to-4 decline-to-advance split accompanied the STI's 0.98% drop, just as Monday's 14-to-11 advance-to-decline split accompanied its 0.97% gain, extending a run of sessions where the benchmark's direction has been broadly shared rather than concentrated in a handful of names. The exception was DFI Retail Group, whose 4.31% drop nearly erased Monday's 5.1% gain on no fresh disclosure — a reminder that Tuesday's single largest move was a reversal of Monday's, not a new catalyst.