Blue chips likely to be in limelight this week

THE penny rally has run for two or three weeks this month and has brought some relief to retail brokers who, after a tough 2014, have found it increasingly difficult to compete with private banks as the latter are able to offer generous financing to retail clients.

The problem is that the rally now looks to be running on fumes, the speculative fuel and liquidity that has driven it since the start of April showing signs of dissipating. It might be a slight exaggeration to say this, but at the rate that turnover is dropping, it looks like it will soon be business as usual.

Critics of the local market (and there are plenty of them out there) would know that the phrase "business as usual" as applied here describes a market where trading is conducted in low volume and low volatility, and one where the Straits Times Index (STI) stays in a narrow trading range with no clear direction.