Banks help STI close in the black

Overseas bourses give little guidance as Dow futures fall slowly throughout Thursday and HK rises 0.3%

Published Thu, Apr 7, 2016 · 09:50 PM

A QUIET trading session on Thursday saw the Straits Times Index (STI) end just 2.34 points higher at 2,813.59, thanks mainly to gains in the three banks. Turnover was a low 1.3 billion units worth S$879.3 million and excluding warrants, there were 202 rises versus 182 falls.

Overseas markets did not provide much guidance - the Dow futures fell slowly throughout the day and stood about 48 points weaker at 5pm, while Hong Kong added 0.3 per cent.

Counteracting the push up from the banks was a S$0.05 loss for Singtel at S$3.72 that came with 17.7 million shares traded. OCBC Investment Research in a Thursday "buy" report on the stock said Singtel remains its top pick in the telco sector because of its ability to grow beyond traditional telco services into cyber secur…

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