FTSE STI closed 3,088.25, down 15.37 points or -0.50% with a total volume of 1.91b and a total value of S$955M. Total number of advance vs decline was 195 vs 243. Of the 30 component index stocks, 8 closed positive, 5 unchanged and 17 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. CityDev +0.110
2. HKLand US$ +0.040
3. Olam +0.025
4. SPH +0.020
5. StarHub +0.020
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C -0.870
2. JMH 400US$ -0.450
3. DBS -0.240
4. JSH 500US$ -0.200
5. UOB -0.140
US markets closed with a drop of at least 0.1% yesterday after weak housing data. Asian bourses were mixed with mostly in the red. Nikkei -0.54%, SSE +0.35% and HSI +0.54%. STI fell 0.50% in thin volume and value. Only 8 of the 30 index stocks managed to register positive closing.
Weak US housing data caused investors to take profit ahead of some important data like GDP in the coming days. Regional bourses taking the cue from US and also concern of China's growth ahead of next Wednesday National People's Congress in which most will be watching for concrete policy signals from the Chinese Government in particular those pressing issues like shadow banking and local government debt.
Singapore announced its manufacturing output for January coming in at +3.9% y-o-y, in line with expectation but slower than the +6.4% recorded in December. With the weakness in regional bourses, there wasn't much incentive for STI to be positive. Profit taking were seen across the broad as punters selling (lock in profit or cut loss) and those short-term investors who bought in recently with weak holding power also selling off in fear of incurring more losses ahead. Do watch out for funds, not those funds selling but those funds taking the opportunity to buy on cheap. It's about time those funds that are still much attracted to Asia valuation coming back slowly.
