STI up 16pts on likely Wall Street bounce

AFTER having lost almost 89 points on Monday and Tuesday, the Straits Times Index on Wednesday rebounded 16.41 points to 3,298.36 most probably thanks to short-covering prompted by expectations that Western markets, particularly Wall Street, would also rise on Wednesday.

Turnover amounted to 1.9 billion units worth S$1.1 billion compared with S$1.24 billion on Tuesday and S$845 million on Monday. Excluding warrants, the advance-decline score was 217-181.

Bank stocks were the main outperformers in 2014 when the STI rose 6.2 per cent, while offshore oil and gas plays are among the biggest underperformers. In Wednesday's session, the biggest contribution to the index's rise came from Hongkong Land; amo…