FTSE STI closed 3,182.08, up 8.51 points or +0.27% with a total volume of 1.88b and a total value of S$2.23b. Total number of advance vs decline was 270 vs 216. Of the 30 component index stocks, 19 closed positive, 10 closed negative and 1 remained unchanged. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C +0.500
2. CityDev +0.360
3. SIA +0.260
4. UOB +0.220
5. KepCorp +0.110
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ -0.840
2. SGX -0.590
3. JSH 500US$ -0.500
4. HKLand US$ -0.060
5. StarHub -0.050
US markets were mixed last Friday with DJ closing in the red while both Nasdaq and S&P500 in the green. There wasn't any important economic data last Friday and investors were divided between corporate earnings and G20 meeting on the latest currency issue over the weekend. Over the weekend, during the G20, agreement was made that neither of the country will de-valuate the exchange rate and let nature demand/supply to dictate the rate with IMF monitoring the currency exchange rate. Asian bourses were mostly positive for the day except Nikkei closed -0.27% while SSE +2.57% and HSI +0.47%. STI failed to overcome the 3,200 resistance and traded range bound between 3,175 to 3,200 closing +0.27% with 19 of the 30 component stocks closing in the green. There was commodity stocks play for the day and also SGX closed down 6.18% after resume trading halt in relation to the merger with ASX news. The merger was a good idea for SGX but investors concerned about the acquisition condition from SGX for ASX and they seemed it as negative. In the afternoon, Singapore released its CPI and was slightly above expectation. This week, investors will be looking at corporate earnings and US 3Q GDP figure at the end of the week.
