Week's correction wipes out most of April's gains

IN a month that saw a rebound in oil prices, a recovery on Wall Street and no change to Fed rates for a third straight meeting, the Singapore equities market continued its climb in April from February's low for most part of the month.

But a market pullback this week after Japan declined to adopt fresh stimulus wiped out most of the gains on the Singapore bourse. As of Friday, the total market capitalisation of some 763 Singapore stocks was S$847.8 billion, only 0.05 per cent higher than a month ago.

Singapore's key benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) closed 2.38 points lower from a month ago at 2,838.52 on Friday, the last trading day of April. It was traded at 12.14 times the 12-month forward earnings, based on Bloomberg data.