STI Drops 2.6% on Trump Tariff Shock; SingPost Down 5%; DBS Group Down 4.2%; UOB, YZJ Shipbldg, Seatrium Down 3%; OCBC Bank, SIA Down 2%

Singapore equities tumbled on Friday. The Straits Times Index (STI) plummeted 2.6%; SingPost down 5%; DBS Group down 4.2%; UOB, YZJ Shipbldg, Seatrium down 3%; OCBC Bank, SIA down 2%.

Both official and private-sector forecasts for Singapore’s full-year growth may be cut after US President Donald Trump slapped a blanket 10 per cent import duty on all countries and more extensive reciprocal tariffs on the “worst offenders”.

The official gross domestic product growth forecast may be downgraded from the current range of between 1 and 3 per cent, as the situation has “turned out to be worse” than expected when the projection was made, Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong told reporters on Thursday (Apr 3).

He warned of a “significant impact” from the 10 per cent tariff alone, adding that the government will give more help to households and businesses if needed.

Nearly half of companies in Singapore (45 per cent) plan to pass on the increased costs from new US tariffs to their customers, a flash survey by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Singapore has found.

Other firms intend to respond by diversifying their supply chains to reduce their reliance on high-tariff markets, or seizing opportunities to gain market share from competitors who are slower to adapt, AmCham Singapore said on April 2.

More than two-thirds of the 36 respondents polled flagged potential reciprocal tariffs on countries taxing US imports as the most significant concern for their business – over existing trade measures.

Nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) said they expect the new tariffs to have a significant or moderately negative impact on their operations.

The survey findings came ahead of an anticipated announcement by the White House on April 2 in Washington, detailing sweeping reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners, with the harshest burden falling on Asian economies.

Singapore republic’s retail sales fell 3.6 per cent year on year in February, reversing the revised 4.7 per cent growth posted in the month before, data from the Department of Statistics (SingStat) showed on Friday (Apr 4).

Singstat attributed the decline to Chinese New Year being celebrated in January this year, as opposed to February last year.

February’s result was also below the estimates of private-sector economists, who had expected retail sales to dip 0.2 per cent year on year in a Bloomberg poll.