No Santa rally, STI sinks on oil dip

LOCAL shares hit the slopes on Monday and left feeling a little bruised. As oil prices slipped further and blue chips stumbled, attention was back on second-liners - some of which had a surprisingly good session in contrast to their heftier neighbours on the local bourse.

No Santa rally was in sight for the overall Singapore stock market, with the benchmark Straits Times Index opening about 0.9 per cent lower and wrapping up the day down 0.3 per cent or 7.29 points at 2,845.55.

The index sank as Brent crude oil futures tumbled to as low as US$36.08 per barrel, their weakest level since the middle of 2004. This dragged down Singapore-listed oil and gas stocks such as Keppel Corp, which shed nine cents to S$6.42, and Sembcorp Marine which dropped S$0.015 to S$1.76.