Market Summary -- 24th Feb 11

FTSE STI closed 2,973.08, down 28.77 points or -0.96% with a total volume of 1.44b and a total value of S$1.69b.  Total number of advance vs decline was 117 vs 415.  Of the 30 component index stocks, 6 closed positive, 23 closed negative and 1 remained unchanged.  The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-

1. CityDev  +0.220

2. Olam  +0.090

3. SembMar  +0.070

4. F&N  +0.060

5. JSH 500US$  +0.020

The top 5 loser component stocks were :-

1. UOB  -0.320

2. Jardine C&C  -0.280

3. SIA  -0.220

4. Wilmar  -0.170

5. HKLand US$  -0.150

US markets fell at least 1% yesterday night with continue fear of the middle east crisis and with HP bearing a weak forecast for rest of the year, selling of tech stocks weighed on the stock markets.  Asian bourses were mostly lowered for the day as the selling accelerated in the afternoon session with European bourses opened almost down 1% and DJ future sank from positive to negative.  Nikkei closed -1.19%, SSE bucked the trend with +0.56% and HSI turned from positive to negative closing -1.34%.  The afternoon suddenly selling off sentiment hit STI and send the index further south with only 6 of the component stocks managed to close positive.  STI will be now looking at the 2,920 support level.