FTSE STI closed 2,486.55, down 84.12 points or 3.27% with a total volume of 922.8M and total value of S$993.0M. Total number of advance vs decline was 88 vs 520. Of the 30 component stocks, 28 closed down and 2 closed in positive. The top 5 loser for the component stocks were :-
1. UOB -0.920
2. Jardine C&C -0.820
3. DBS -0.560
4. SIA -0.300
5. CityDev -0.280
The 2 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JSH 500US$ +0.200
2. ThBev +0.005
The sharp drop in the market was mainly due to the failure to reach a rescue plan for Lehman Brothers during the weekend and Lehman Brothers is filing for bankruptcy. Confirmation news of Bank of America acquired trouble Merrill Lynch in a total US$44m amount also surface in the market. With the acquisition, Temasek Holdings is expected to have a US$5/share gain and an amount of US$1billion profit from that. However, further news of insurancer AIG also required funding weighing heavily on the market sentiment. Japan, China and HongKong, South Korea markets were closed today and hence STI was under heavy selling pressure.
All eyes will be on Wall Streets tonight to see any possible solution will be out to resolve Lehman Brothers issue. If a good solution is provided, market might do a reversal tomorrow else might face some more selling pressure for the next few trading sessions.
