Singapore: STI suffers third straight loss

THE Straits Times Index (STI) on Wednesday recorded a third consecutive loss, losing 11.4 points to end at 3,459.79. Overnight weakness on Wall Street brought on by an escalation of Greece's financial problems was said to be a major factor behind the selling which also affected the rest of the region.

Turnover spiked up to 1.3 billion units worth S$1.2 billion compared with the weak S$886 million done on Tuesday. Volume done in the 30 STI components amounted to S$311 million, about 25 per cent of total business. The average value per unit done was S$0.94.

Banks turned in a mixed performance - DBS rose but OCBC and UOB fell.

In the second line, shares of healthy lifestyle retailer Osim International plunged S$0.195 or 10 per cent to S$1.735 on volume of 14 million after the company reported that first-quarter profit after tax and minority interests fell a much worse-than-expected 53.1 per cent year-on-year to S$13.5 million.

"In light of the weak sentiment, we have revised our forecasts downwards and derived a new fair value estimate of S$1.87 (previously S$1.97), based on a blended FY15/16F EPS. Maintain 'hold'," said OCBC Investment Research of Osim.

RHB Research in the meantime, said that the results were "significantly below expectations", and although it has downgraded Osim to "neutral" with S$2 target, it thinks because the market would not take too kindly to the numbers, S$1.60 would be a much better entry.