STI retreats again, down 1.4%

WALL Street may have rebounded sharply on Monday after seven successive days of losses but there was no impact here, as the Straits Times Index (STI) melted 43.6 points or 1.4 per cent to end at 3,153.06 led by falls in the banks and Singtel. Weakness in China and anticipation of a Tuesday blowout in the United States were the likely reasons for the pressure that came in relatively heavy volume of two billion units worth S$1.9 billion. Excluding warrants there were 161 rises versus 296 falls.

Brokers said volatility in China and expectations that US rates would be raised sooner rather than later were probably the main reasons for the selling.

Among the stocks in play was Noble Group, which first bounced to an intraday high of $0.645 but slid to a net loss of S$0.01 at S$0.57 on volume of 307.5 million. The company released its second-quarter results over the weekend, together with a report by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that said Noble adheres to accepted accounting practices when valuing its mark-to-market contracts.