Merrymaking continues with STI up 1%

THE local bourse wouldn't let up on its new-year merry-making and snubbed the rising rhetoric between the United States and North Korea, choosing instead to cheer Wall Street's grand 2018 start while it continued to bask in the goodness of recently-released upbeat macro data both from home and abroad.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) climbed 34 points or one per cent to finish at 3,464.28 on Wednesday, led by sweet gains in banking stocks, and outperformed regional peers.

The gains came ahead of the release of Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes which is hoped will provide some assessment on the US …