Singapore stocks close lower, decoupled from Wall St on Trump uncertainty

WALL Street may have risen to new highs on Friday and the Dow futures may have continued this upward momentum on Monday, but stocks in this part of the world have not followed suit.

The Straits Times Index on Friday dropped 19 points followed by a 27.33 points or 0.97 per cent fall to 2,787.27 on Monday.

This decoupling is likely because of US president-elect Donald Trump's resolve to put America's interests ahead of the rest of the world, prompting fears of trade protectionism that would hurt Asian economies.

Whatever the case, one silver lining has been a surge in trading volume to above the S$1 billion industry breakeven level for several days now. Monday's business amounted to two billion units worth S$1.3 billion. Excluding warrants, there were 124 rises versus 294 falls.