FTSE STI closed 2,544.86, down 14.71 points or -0.58% with a total volume of 2.53b and a total value of S$1.51b. Total number of advance vs decline was 221 vs 250. Of the 30 component index stocks, 4 closed positive, 23 closed negative and 3 remained unchanged. The 4 gainer component stocks were :-
1. StarHub +0.150
2. JMH 400US$ +0.100
3. SGX +0.030
4. Genting +0.005
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C -0.240
2. SIA -0.160
3. KepCorp -0.110
4. UOB -0.100
5. OCBC -0.080
5. JSH 500US$ -0.080
US markets continued to move up yesterday night after a better than expected deficit figure. Asia bourses were mixed in the opening as investors could not find strong reason to buy into over the weekend. Nikkei closed -1.40%, SSE +1.69% and HSI -0.64%. Some of the Asia bourses were trading in the positive region when news of China might curb bank lending surfaced caused indices to shift into negative region. STI reversed earlier gain to close -0.58% as investors took profit and stay sideline for further clue on the direction.
