FTSE STI closed 2,749.15, down 12.99 points or -0.47% with a total volume of 1.27b and a total value of S$1.05b. Total number of advance vs decline was 178 vs 281. Of the 30 component index stocks, 7 closed positive, 22 closed negative and 1 remained unchanged. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. UOB +0.160
2. SembCorp +0.060
3. F&N +0.040
4. SPH +0.030
5. SMRT +0.020
5. ST Engg +0.020
5. CityDev +0.020
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ -0.320
2. Jardine C&C -0.240
3. JSH 500US$ -0.160
4. HKLand US$ -0.080
5. OCBC -0.060
US markets advanced around 1% yesterday night after US Fed Chief said low interest rate will remain for the time being until the economy show better improvement. This piece of news lifted the sentiment against a weak home sales data. However, Asia bourses took the positive close as a sell into strength opportunity. Most Asia bourses opened in the positive but ended the day in the negative. Nikkei closed -0.95%, SSE +1.27% and HSI -0.33%. STI still unable to move past 2,800 hovering around the 2,750 level with most of the blue chips under selling pressure. CityDev this morning reported a better than market expectation result but failed to lift the general selling pressure of the board market property stocks. After the bell, SembCorp reported a set of better than expectation result.
