STI Rallies 1.05% to 5,807.83 on Broad Advance; Yangzijiang Leads, Sembcorp Lags
The Straits Times Index closed at 5,807.83 on Friday, up 60.12 points, or 1.05%, after touching an intraday high of 5,828.50 and a low of 5,754.11. Twenty-two of the benchmark's 30 constituents advanced against seven decliners, with one unchanged, as gains led by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Hongkong Land and Singtel pushed the index toward its strongest session of the week.
Gains were broad rather than concentrated in a handful of stocks. All three local banks closed higher together — DBS up 0.90%, OCBC up 1.10% and UOB up 0.65% — while developers were split: Hongkong Land added 3.26% and City Developments 1.18%, even as UOL and Jardine Matheson both slipped. Most of the REIT complex reversed Thursday's across-the-board decline, and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's 4.66% gain made it the session's biggest mover, leaving Sembcorp Industries and Jardine C&C among the handful of decliners.
Session Movers
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (BS6.SG, +4.66%) led the session with no fresh disclosure Friday, extending a rally that traces back to its H1 earnings report in early August, when shares jumped as much as 9.3% on strong first-half results, and the appointment of Heng Su-Ling Mae, a fellow chartered accountant, as independent non-executive director and remuneration committee chair effective mid-August. Consensus rates the stock Strong Buy with a S$5.15 target implying roughly 4% further upside, though at 10.2 times earnings — above its own five-year range and ranked fifth-priciest among 12 industry peers — some of that momentum already looks reflected in the price.
Sembcorp Industries (U96.SG, -1.13%) was among the session's weaker names with no fresh disclosure Friday. The stock continues to digest an August 27 earnings call in which the group reported a 25% year-on-year drop in H1 underlying net profit to S$369 million, weighed by weak renewables performance and Alinta-acquisition costs, even as management raised the interim dividend 22% and pointed to a stronger contribution from the newly acquired Alinta platform. Shares trade at 18.4 times earnings — richer than at any point in the past five years, the priciest multiple in its two-company industry group — leaving little cushion after last month's rally on the Indian renewable unit's IPO filing.
Singtel (Z74.SG, +1.8%) advanced after Maybank reiterated a Buy rating and S$5.21 target on Friday, citing a credible FY2030 roadmap built on Optus's recovery, growth at NCS and rising AI data-centre demand; the broker forecasts core net profit climbing from S$2.77 billion in FY2026 to S$3.58 billion in FY2028, implying an estimated total return of about 20%. The stock also continues to draw support from its buyback programme — Singtel led all SGX on-market repurchases in August at S$55.6 million for nearly 13 million shares, taking its year-to-date total to S$948.6 million, or 45% of the aggregate across primary-listed companies, part of a S$2 billion three-year shareholder-return plan.
SGX (S68.SG, +1.2%) rose after the exchange operator listed its first actively managed ETF, tracking the iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index under ticker Q50, on September 3. Managed by CGS International Securities and advised by Fullgoal Asset Management, the fund targets a S$109 billion mid-cap universe and lifts SGX's total ETF count to 54 with combined assets under management above S$21 billion; the same day, the bourse operator redeemed US$250 million of notes at maturity. Shares trade at 38.25 times earnings — cheaper than just 1.93% of the past decade — with consensus still rating the stock Hold and a S$24.15 target implying roughly 4% downside.

One point worth noting
Breadth turned decisively positive Friday: 22 of the STI's 30 constituents advanced against seven decliners and one unchanged, the widest positive spread of the past week and a sharp reversal from Thursday, when 18 of 30 fell even as the index finished barely changed. Six of the seven REIT-linked names in the basket rose together — Mapletree Logistics Trust, CICT, MPACT, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Industrial Trust all higher — with only Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust lower, reversing Thursday's across-the-board retreat in the complex and pointing to buying that extended well beyond the session's headline gainers.
This recap is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

