A bull in a China shop

SINGAPORE'S stock market closed one per cent lower on Tuesday with the Straits Times Index retreating 32.33 points or one per cent to 3,281.09. Penny stock activity was rampant. Some 2.3 billion shares worth S$1.37 billion in total changed hands, which worked out to an average unit price of S$0.60 per share.

As their far larger counterparts on the mainland bourses continued to slump, Singapore penny stocks with "China" attached to their names ran wild.

Exhibit A is Chinese Global Investors Group, hitherto a sleepy micro-cap involved in a waterproofing business and holding on to some equity investments.