Stocks weaken in line with China, HK sell-off

THE Singapore market's recent dismal form continued on Thursday with the Straits Times Index (STI) spending the entire session in the red before closing with a nett loss of 7.17 points at 3,417.77, most probably because of a large sell-off in China and Hong Kong.

Turnover, which spiked up to S$1.3 billion during Wednesday's sell-off, amounted to 1.9 billion units worth S$1.1 billion.

The loss cut the STI's gain for 2015 to 52 points or 1.5 per cent. Banks were among the more notable index losers as all three ended weaker. Brokers said banks had recently outperformed because of expectations that they would benefit from rising interest rates; however, a recent sharp drop in Sibor…