Singapore shares close weaker for third straight session

THE Straits Times Index (STI) on Wednesday tracked the futures contract on the Dow Jones Industrial Average closely throughout the day. A 50-point rise in the Dow futures in the morning helped the STI move into the black, but by 5pm when the former had dropped 20 points into the red, so did the STI.

A late bounce eventually helped trim the STI's loss from seven points just before 5pm to 0.52 at 2,790.54 after the post-closing adjustments. It was the index's third consecutive loss.

Volume, which on Tuesday had jumped to almost S$2 billion thanks to attempts at month-end window-dressing of key blue chips like the banks, dropped sharply to one billion units worth S$1 billion. Excluding warrants, there were 147 rises versus 243 falls.

Among the three banks, OCBC stood out with a S$0.05 fall to S$8.57 on volume of five million, while weakness in the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Global Logistic Properties and Keppel Corp also contributed towards depressing the STI.

SGX despatched one trading query during Wednesday's session, to food and beverage firm Yeo Hiap Seng (YHS) after YHS's shares jumped S$0.175 or 13.4 per cent to S$1.485 on volume of 303,100. The query was sent at 4.08pm and the company had not replied before trading ended for the day.