FTSE STI closed 3,391.20, down 27. points or -0.81% with a total volume of 1.52b and a total value of S$1.76b. Total number of advance vs decline was 212 vs 231. Of the 30 component index stocks, 7 closed positive, 1 unchanged and 22 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-
1. Jardine C&C +0.170
2. KepCorp +0.160
3. Sembcorp +0.030
4. SembMar +0.020
5. Noble +0.010
5. SingTel +0.010
The top 5 loser component stocks were :-
1. JMH USD -1.230
2. JSH USD -0.790
3. UOB -0.190
4. DBS -0.170
5. CityDev -0.170
US markets closed with a gain of around 1% yesterday but Asian bourses were mixed for the day with Nikkei +0.39%, SSE -1.55% and HSI -0.36%. STI again swinging between gain and loss and eventually fell 0.81% in typical daily volume but higher value with only 7 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.
Corporate earning and rebound of oil price led US markets to reverse earlier weakness in the second half of the day to close average +1%. Asian markets ended the last trading day of January in mixed. Japan this morning released its inflation coming in at 2.5% for December below expectation and it was the 5th month inflation continued to ease. The data to watch out for tonight will be US GDP figure for 2014. A good set of data might be creating confusing signals for investors as US Fed could be seeing that as a sign to do rate hike but the recent weakness in economic data, global deflation threat due to falling oil price and strengthening of USD probably is not advisable for a sooner than expected rate hike.
STI was in range bound for most of the day until the last 15 minutes where month end window dressing with funds taking profit for portfolio sent the index to below 3,400 with banking and Jardine group of shares responsible for the drop. STI is facing immediate resistance around the 3,450 region. What STI need now is to find a support level and consolidate if not the uptrend will not be able to sustain.
