S'pore investors sold more US stocks

Singapore

PERHAPS they were too absorbed in the wheeling and dealing that they didn't hear the US Federal Reserve when it announced its change of heart and decided to prolong its "quantitative easing" beyond the quarter.

While other global investors reacted quickly to the news by switching from "sell" to "buy" on Wall Street in Q3 last year, figures just released by the US Treasury show that Singapore investors persisted in dumping US stocks.

Ironically, they were still in the "sell" mode they had shifted to in Q2, when the Fed hinted that it was going to cut back on its purchases of US government bonds. Maybe local investors heard only the second part of the Fed's message: that it was deferring the tapering of "quantitative easing" because the economy was still weak and in need of capital injections. Wh…