Singapore shares close down 0.06% on Monday

IT WAS a rough day for local equities, with the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) ending lower for the third straight day on Monday.

It declined by 2.12 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 3,414.82.

The index was weighed down by constituent stock SingTel, which shed S$0.11, or 2.93 per cent, to S$3.64 on a turnover of 30 million shares.

The bourse, on the whole, saw just over 1.52 billion shares, worth roughly S$1.03 billion, changing hands.

Gainers outnumbered losers 224 to 198.

The star of the show was definitely Rowsley.

The counter threw investors into a tizzy and drove up activity when the stock resumed trading after lunch.

The investment company had announced in the morning that it will take the privately held Thomson Medical business off tycoon Peter Lim's hands to the tune of S$1.6 billion, paid mostly in stock.

More than 305.8 million Rowsley shares were traded, with the counter finishing up by 2.5 Singapore cents, or 22.5 per cent, at S$0.136.