FTSE STI closed 3,212.10, down 24.70 points or -0.76% with a total volume of 1.52b and a total value of S$1.68b. Total number of advance vs decline was 169 vs 300. Of the 30 component index stocks, 7 closed positive, 20 closed negative and 3 remained unchanged. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JMH 400US$ +0.180
2. JSH +0.120
3. OCBC +0.080
4. ComfortDelGro +0.020
5. Genting SP +0.010
5. GoldenAgr +0.010
5. SembMar +0.010
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. UOB -0.180
2. SIA -0.120
3. F&N -0.120
4. SembCorp -0.110
5. SingTel -0.100
5. KepCorp -0.100
5. Jardine C&C -0.100
US markets gave up earlier gain to close marginally flat yesterday. A better than expected Oct retail sales data was offset by the relatively bearish NY manufacturing data. Asian bourses were cautious in early trading but once Shanghai market fell and closed -3.98% with concern of further monetary measures caused rest of the regional bourses to trade weaker. Nikkei closed -0.31% and HSI -1.39%. STI managed to open in the positive region but sentiment from SSE coupling with European markets opened with an at least 1% drop and negative DJ future send the index down to an intra-day low of 3,207 within touching distance of the support level at 3,200 and closed at 3,212.10 in a very thin volume trading day. Due to tomorrow being holiday, investors are unwilling to take up any fresh position and remain cautious. STI now is very close to the lower boundary of the uptrend channel and will have to see whether it can rebound from there. In the afternoon, Singapore released a better than expected set of non-oil export data of +34.5% on yr vs +25.9% expected.
