STI drops 2.2% for week ahead of Xmas holidays

THE penultimate week of 2016 was not particularly memorable as the Trump-inspired rally of the previous five weeks lost momentum and as liquidity drained rapidly away. On Friday, the day before Christmas Eve, the Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 10.99 points to 2,871.05, bringing its loss for the week to 66 points or 2.2 per cent. Turnover was a thin 1.5 billion units worth S$593.1 million and excluding warrants, there were 174 rises versus 216 falls.

To be honest though, this was not surprising - the Christmas/New Year holiday period traditionally sees trading wind down to a virtual standstill as traders close their books and depart for their vacations, so this year was no different.

There are also uncanny similarities between trading this month and a year ago - daily volume in the final weeks of December 2015 was below S$1 billion; the STI traded between 2,815 and 2,880; Noble Group, Ezra and Ezion were regulars in the daily actives lists as they are now; and in mid-December, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points as it did 10 days ago.