SG Morning Highlights | Seatrium Reports Net Order Book of S$25.8 Billion in Q1FY2024 Business Update

Advancers / Decliners is 83 to 54, with 71.84 million securities worth S$100.83 million changing hands.

DBS Group Holdings, United Overseas Bank, and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation continue to be the most traded stocks in Singapore, with the trio booking a combined net institutional inflow of $500 million from 1 January to 23 May and averaging 15.6% total returns. Individually, DBS booked $37.9 million, UOB booked $248.1 million, and OCBC booked $214.2 million. Other SGX-listed stocks in the financial sector that booked NII include Yangzijiang Financial, Great Eastern, and UOB Kay Hian. The banks also maintained a combined market capitalisation of $218 billion, and in Q1 2024, reported a combined net interest income of $8.3 billion, marking the sixth quarter that their combined NII surpassed $8 billion.

Experts are raising red flags for Singapore's second-quarter GDP growth following the 1.6% year-on-year April manufacturing drop. RHB predicts that the GDP growth may slow to around 1.5% despite expectations of acceleration in the second half of the year. Nomura shares a similar sentiment, stating that services will benefit from the strong tourism recovery and improvements in the trade-related segment. UOB, on the other hand, remains optimistic, especially about recovery prospects in the electronics and semiconductor sectors, citing supportive base effects and strong underlying demand fundamentals. Despite the cautionary outlook for 2Q24, longer-term prospects remain positive, with Nomura expecting full-year GDP growth of 3.0%, underpinned by the global tech turnaround that should ultimately provide a strong boost to the manufacturing sector.