Wall St high, DBS results help lift STI by 1.5%

WALL Street's jump to a new all-time high on Friday and DBS's better- than-expected second-quarter profit helped propel the Straits Times Index (STI) up 42.61 points or 1.5 per cent to 2,870.78 on Monday, albeit in mediocre, pre-holiday volume of 938 million units worth S$1.03 billion.

Singtel led the way with a S$0.13 surge to S$4.20 on volume of 29 million, a rise that added 12 points to the index. Gains in the three banks added another 15 points, while the Jardine group's contribution via rises in Hongkong Land and Jardine Cycle & Carriage was about five points. Excluding warrants, the broad market's advance-decline score was a much more mixed 226 to 186 than the index's rise would indicate.

Before trading opened at 9am, DBS released its latest figures - a 6 per cent drop in net profit for the quarter ended June 30 to S$1.06 billion, largely because of a one-off provision of S$150 million because of the bankruptcy of offshore and marine (O&M) company Swiber Holdings.