Singapore stocks end up 0.27%

Singapore shares closed 0.27 percent higher, as investors are confident that a deal will be reached before a mid-October deadline to avoid a U.S. historic debt default. President Barack Obama said he would be willing to negotiate only after Republicans agree to re-open the government and raise the debt limit with no conditions, although Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he was disappointed by the president's approach. OCBC Investment Research said that the Straits Times Index "may attempt to, but find it hard to sustain momentum," adding that the upcoming release of the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting minutes as a focal point of attention, as "investors are expected to be keen to uncover greater clarity behind the Federal Reserve's reason to stand pat." CIMB Research said "if a bounce occurs here, it would find 3, 198 points and 3,220 points a tough resistance." Phillip Securities Research said "investors continue to be concerned over the U.S. government shutdown, and debt ceiling debate. We peg key near term support at 3,100 points levels." Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 8.34 points to 3, 154.84 points. Trading volume was 3.51 billion shares worth 967.6 million Singapore dollars. Decliners outnumbered advancers 224 to 196, while 538 stocks did not move. Albedo Limited jumped 16.7 percent to 4.9 Singapore cents. The steel trader and manufacturer announced last month a 774 million Singapore dollars reverse takeover deal with Infinite Rewards. Executives from Infinite Rewards stressed their commitment to seeing the deal go through. Ace Achieve Infocom soared 54.5 percent to 6.8 Singapore cents. It proposed to raise up to 100 million new shares at an issue price of 4.3 Singapore cents per share, representing a discount of approximately 2.27 percent to the last volume weighted price and raising 4.3 million Singapore dollars. The funds will be mainly used to fund research and development activities of the Group, and also for the investment in software for research and development purposes. Koh Brothers Group ended flat at 29.5 Singapore cents. It has kick-started operations at its first pre-cast plant in Senai, within Iskandar, Malaysia. This plant is expected to be fully operational in the last quarter of 2013. Among top gainers, Jardine Matheson rose 1 percent to 54.93 U.S. dollars, while Jardine Cycle and Carriage became one of the top losers by falling 1.4 percent to 35.06 Singapore dollars. (1 U.S. dollar equals 1.25 Singapore dollars)