Singapore Shares End Week in Red amid Prolonged US-Iran Conflict; Skylink Surges 10%
Singapore shares extended their losses on Friday to end the week in red, with the US-Iran standoff at the Strait of Hormuz showing no signs of dying down.The Straits Times Index (STI), a key benchmark for the Singapore Exchange, ranged between 4,903.72 and 4,941.27 throughout the day. It ended the session at 4,922.86, down 21.25 points or 0.4% compared to Thursday's close.The decline mirrored broader regional retreats following U.S. President Donald Trump's directive for the U.S. military to "shoot and kill" any Iranian boot laying mines in the passageway as efforts to clean the shipping route continue.In economic news, Singapore's overall private residential price index rose 0.9% in the first quarter of the year, up from the 0.6% growth a year earlier, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority on Friday.On the corporate front, shares of Skylink (SGX:XZB) surged over 10% at the close with the vehicle leasing company expecting to report a "substantially higher" net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 compared with a year prior.IFast Corp.'s (SGX:AIY) shares closed 5% lower even though its net profit attributable to owners surged 47% during the first quarter of the year to SG$28.0 million from SG$19.0 million a year earlier.Meanwhile, shares of First REIT (SGX:AW9U) were up over 2% at the close even as its distribution per unit or DPU declined 14% in the first quarter of the year to SG$0.005 from SG$0.0058 a year earlier.