The Straits Times Index (STI) reached a record intra-day high of 4,485.5 points and closed at a record 4,484.99 points on Nov 6, up 1.54%, helped by DBS Group Holdings’ 3.81% surge after the bank posted an earnings beat of $2.95 billion for its 3QFY2025 ended Sept 30.
The STI’s previous closing peak was 4,472.26 points on Oct 7. The STI had opened at 4,417.66 points on Nov 6.
DBS’s third-quarter earnings fell 2% y-o-y but was up 5% q-o-q. Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets has declared a total 3QFY2025 dividend of 75 cents per share, comprising a 60-cent ordinary dividend and 15 cents in the form of capital return dividend.
DBS also plans to increase its quarterly ordinary dividend payout by 6 cents to 66 cents, which means an additional 24 cents for FY2026. In addition, there's 15 cents per share to be paid in capital return dividend, which has been committed up to FY2027, which works out to 81 cents per quarter.
As a result, the largest stock on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) by market capitalisation rose $2.04 over Nov 6 to close at $55.54. Shares in DBS had reached an all-time high of $55.55 just after the midday break.
See also: DBS hits new record of $55.55 with higher dividend commitment
Among the STI’s 30 constituents, an even bigger surge came from Singtel, whose shares rose 5.39% to close at $4.50 on Nov 6, outpacing DBS’s rise during the day.
The surge came from news that investment firm KKR & Co and Singtel are reportedly in advanced talks to buy more than 80% of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres.
If this deal materialises, KKR and Singtel, which are already in an existing venture to build data centres together, will gain full ownership over GDC, for over $5 billion, according to Reuters, citing sources it did not name.
See also: DBS 3QFY2025 earnings down 2% y-o-y to $2.95 billion but beat expectations
KKR currently owns about 14% of GDC while Singtel has a stake of more than 4%. The rest of GDC is held by ST Telemedia, wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, which is also the controlling shareholder of Singtel.
The day’s second-biggest gainer within the STI was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which rebounded 3.9% to close at $3.46, snapping a six-day decline.
Global asset manager BlackRock sold about 37.8 million shares of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in total on Oct 29 and 31. In a Nov 4 bourse filing, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding said BlackRock ceased to be a substantial shareholder following the Oct 31 divestment.
On the other hand, United Overseas Bank (UOB) was the biggest drag on the STI on Nov 6, falling 2.78% to close at $33.90. UOB had posted a 72% y-o-y drop in net profit to $443 million for 3QFY2025, largely owing to a pre-emptive move to make an additional general provision of $615 million.
Total income for 3QFY2025 was down 11% y-o-y to $3.47 billion, with both net interest income and net fee income dipping slightly.
Despite this drop, UOB maintains its commitment to its share buyback programme and that the provisions will have no bearing to its final FY2025 dividend.
