Escalating geo-political worries hit stocks

THE Singapore stock market was in no celebratory mood yesterday on the eve of National Day as an overnight sell-off on Wall Street, sparked apparently by growing geo-political uncertainties, further dampened sentiment, resulting in the Straits Times Index falling 25.33 points or 0.8 per cent to 3,288.89.

The STI's movements have sometimes not been representative of broad market performance but this was not the case yesterday when the entire market recorded 116 rises against 364 falls excluding warrants, or about three losers for each winner.

Wall Street has been weak for a fortnight now and fell again on Thursday, reportedly because of Russian troop buildup in Ukraine, possible US air strikes in Iraq and the worsening trouble in Gaza, the resulting surge in "geopolitical risk" prompting traders to dump stocks despite the release of a positive US jobless claims report.