STI on brink of regaining positive territory

ON Wednesday, the penultimate day of the first quarter, the Straits Times Index rebounded 53.7 points, or 1.9 per cent, to 2,872.87.

Two reasons could be found for the gain which came after two days of losses that saw the index lose 29 points - comments made by US Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen that reinforced the notion that bad economic news would be good for stocks, and early quarter-ending window-dressing. On this latter point, with the index now only 10 points in the red for 2016, another push to take it into the black on Thursday is probable.

Banks were the largest index gainers, followed by several others such as Keppel Corp, Genting Singapore and Global Logistic Properties. Turnover amounted to 1.4 billion units worth S$1.2 billion and excluding warrants, there were 291 rises versus 125 falls.