FTSE STI closed 3,180.92, up 1.44 points or +0.05% with a total volume of 3.53b and a total value of S$1.30b. Total number of advance vs decline was 175 vs 282. Of the 30 component index stocks, 13 closed positive, 3 unchanged and 14 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ +0.250
2. SIA Engg +0.080
3. Kep Corp +0.060
4. SingTel +0.060
5. SIA +0.050
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C -0.630
2. JSH 500US$ -0.320
3. CityDev -0.100
4. OCBC -0.090
5. UOB -0.030
5. DBS -0.030
5. CapMallsAsia -0.030
US markets closed mostly higher yesterday. Asian bourses were mostly down for the day with Nikkei -0.65%, SSE -2.05% and HSI -0.31%. STI was flat in a slightly thin volume day with 13 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
The Lawrence Summers news caused global markets to rally yesterday but today all focus were on the US Fed FOMC meeting. With all anticipating the Fed to announce decision to start taper, it was cautious that rule the day resulting regional bourses mostly down. Whether US Fed will start tapering will be known tomorrow and most have already expect the go ahead just that the detail that matters now. Remember US Fed should not be overly aggressive in tapering and global markets will feel the knee-jerk if so. Looking at the macro view, US Fed tapering is a good news and not a bad one.
STI was pretty much directionless as investors cautious on the outcome of the US Fed FOMC meeting. Profit-taking was seen across the broad without surprise given yesterday strong run up. Singapore released its non-oil domestic export for August this morning coming in at -6.2% vs +2.3% expected and that probably caused some short-term worried on Singapore economy growth. Investors are focusing on US Fed action, a tendency for markets to over-react is very highly possible also. To start tapering is good and US Fed should know that they should not be aggressive in doing that. Should the action is in line with that and markets overly reacted, that will be a big bargain opportunity.
