FTSE STI closed 2,177.55, up 9.23 points or 0.43% with a total volume of 1.234b and a total value of S$1.491b. Total number of advance vs decline was 192 vs 255. Of the 30 component stocks, 17 closed in the positive, 10 closed negative and 3 remained unchanged. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JSH 500US$ +0.400
2. UOB +0.220
3. DBS +0.180
4. SembCorp +0.120
5. SGX +0.110
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ -0.540
2. KepCorp -0.250
3. StarHub -0.220
4. SIA -0.180
5. Capitaland -0.170
Even though US markets suffer heavy drop ( at a point DJI dropped more than 700 pts ), STI opened relatively flat and very soon turned positive as bargin hunting coming in to support the index. Market even up more than 40 points after news of Australia Central Bank did a rate cut with banking stocks and SingTel leading the recovery. In the afternoon when news of Barclays and RBS said to be in talks on UK Government Funding, STI shed the gain and even sink to the negative but still managed to close relatively flat in the positive. With a falling crude oil price, offshore&marine and commodity stocks were the main losers for today. All eyes will be on Wall Street tonight depending in how US digest the news on the UK banks and will it be able to reclaim the 10,000 level for DJI.
