"OTHER than Noble's rights and shares, the rest of the market is still on holiday," said a dealer. This is perhaps a slight exaggeration given the spurt of interest in other second liners such as CNMC Goldmine, but a fairly accurate description of a Thursday session in which the Straits Times Index drifted to a 2.5-point loss at 2,862.17 in the wake of overnight, "Brexit"-induced selling Europe-wide.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed one per cent higher while the Dow futures at 5pm gained 28 points.

Turnover, however, was marginally above average at 1.6 billion units worth S$1.2 billion. The average worked out to S$0.75 per unit, a good indication of where the market's energies were directed. Excluding warrants, there were 188 rises versus 202 falls.