Industrial and financial stocks weighed on the Singapore benchmark index, as it closed at its lowest in almost eight months on Monday (26 Aug) – as reported by Reuters. In fact, lender DBS Group Holdings fell 1.2%, while Jardine Matheson Holdings lost 2.5%.
Additionally, the report shared that the city-state’s July industrial production dropped 0.4% year-on-year, but “the fall was much narrower than broader forecasts”. Production had contracted 8.1% in June, according to revised figures from the Singapore Economic Development Board.
Across the region, Southeast Asian markets ended lower on Monday, tracking a broader Asian sell-off as the United States and China slapped retaliatory tariffs on each other over the weekend in further escalation of a protracted trade war.
Though both countries sought to ease trade war tensions on Monday, with Beijing calling for calm and U.S. President Donald Trump predicting a deal, local markets seemed to shrug off the optimism.
Washington on Friday added an extra 5% duty on about $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, retorting the Chinese imposition of an extra 10% tariff on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods earlier that day.
