STI passes 3,500 level as traders pile in

MOMENTUM'S the name, momentum's the game. On the back of a synchronised global recovery in 2017, the market is betting that the economic momentum will carry on through 2018, lifting financial assets with it.

People are buying stocks that are going up, a momentum-based strategy that worked well in 2017. Tech stocks in the US continue to soar. On Thursday, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index opened the year with a bang, up an extraordinary 3.3 per cent to 23,506 points.

And so Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) closed Thursday at 3,501.16 points, up 36.88 points or 1.1 per cent.