Singapore shares closed 1.75 percent higher on Tuesday, as investors expected China to introduce more stimulus measures soon after the release of weak economic growth data.
According to data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, China's gross domestic product growth slowed to 6.9 percent in 2015, the first time below 7 percent for 25 years, but largely in line with market expectation.
For the fourth quarter, China's economy grew 6.8 percent from a year earlier, also matching expectations and the slowest since 2009, putting pressure on Beijing to roll out more support measures amid worries of a sharper slowdown ahead.
DBS Group Research said "the probability of Straits Times Index falling towards 2,500 points that coincides with the 50 percent downward retracement level before the next major inflexion point has increased.
Along the way down though, we do not rule out a technical rebound around 2,600 points but this should be capped at 2,630 points or moderately higher at 2,700 points." Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index jumped 45.47 points to 2,638.47 points.
Trading volume was 1.24 billion shares worth 1. 28 million Singapore dollars. Advancers outnumbered decliners 306 to 126, while 493 stocks did not move. M1 Limited fell 4.2 percent to 2.50 Singapore dollars.
It reported net profit for the fourth quarter ended December was down 2.1 percent on year, while operating revenue fell 11.1 percent on year in the face of increased competition in a saturated market.
Hyflux Limited jumped 6.3 percent to 51.5 Singapore cents. The environment solutions company announced it has a 50.4 million U.S. dollar contract to build a seawater reverse-osmosis and sulphate- removal plant in Saudi Arabia.
The contract will be completed this year and would contribute to the financial of Hyflux, which in turns reflect higher revenue potential.
Among the top gainers, Jardine Cycle and Carriage rose 3.3 percent to 34.79 Singapore dollars, whereas Singapore Airlines became one of the top losers by falling 0.7 percent to 11.09 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 1.44 Singapore dollars)
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