Singapore stocks finish mixed on Friday despite STI's rise

US President Donald Trump said this week that his administration is running like a "fine-tuned machine" despite his national security adviser being fired; his pick for Labour Secretary pulling out of the running for the job; and his choice of a replacement national security adviser rejecting the offer.

However, the obvious chaos and disarray in the upper echelons of US government aside, stock markets are operating like fine-tuned machines, opting to view the glass as half full despite a mid-week warning from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen that interest rates will have to be raised soon, perhaps even more than previously thought.

With Wall Street interpreting this as a reason to buy banks and therefore rising to new all-time highs, the impact here was that after Tuesday's sell-off following OCBC's results, the Straits Times Index (STI) rebounded the next three days, gaining 10.96 points on Friday to close at 3,107.65. For the week the index advanced seven points.

Turnover has improved over the past month from last year's dismal S$1 billion daily average, and Friday saw 3.8 billion units worth S$1.4 billion done. Excluding warrants, there were 227 rises versus 228 falls so trading was more mixed than firm.