FTSE STI closed 3,264.09, down 12.65 points or -0.39% with a total volume of 1.04b and a total value of S$727M. Total number of advance vs decline was 196 vs 211. Of the 30 component index stocks, 5 closed positive, 3 unchanged and 22 in the red. The 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. JSH 500USD +0.200
2. ComfortDelGro +0.080
3. CapitaMall +0.020
4. UOB +0.020
5. GLP +0.010
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C -0.520
2. JMH 400USD -0.420
3. SGX -0.200
4. HongkongLand USD -0.100
5. Kep Corp -0.070
5. CityDev -0.070
US markets closed in the red yesterday and Asian bourses taking the lead were mostly in the red. Nikkei -0.56% and both SSE and HSI were closed for national holiday. STI fell 0.39% in thinner volume and value than yesterday with only 5 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
No surprise end of quarter fund managers booking profit for their portfolio caused US markets to close in the red. Some might argue part of the reason was due to concern of Hong Kong pro-democracy protest and ahead of this Friday non-farm payroll data. Both US and UK as of latest have engaged in talk with China regarding the Hong Kong issue. While a serious problem might not turn out to be but just have to watch how China going to resolve that peacefully. China released its official PMI data for September today coming in at 51.1, same as previous month, pretty much in line with expectation. That indicated some stability in its manufacturing activities which have caused some global concern with the recent weakness. Europe on the other hand released its PMI coming in at 50.3, falling from 50.7 in August and lower than expectation. There is speculation that ECB might unveil a bigger stimulus this month.
Yesterday was fund managers selling on STI and today was the punters closing positions. There is in need of flushing out those sellers before STI could head for a rebound. Now it should be the time to monitor for support for the fundamental stocks. There could be one or two occasions of some panic dumping before earning season starts due to reaction to global events like US non-farm payroll and the Hong Kong issue. Those should be seen as bargain hunt opportunity.
