Coal, chocolate, and jolly Chinese money

IS Santa Claus Chinese? You question the underpinnings of your childhood as a debt-soaked China developer strikes a deal with an S-chip, China coal demand keeps an Indonesian miner happy, and peering under the stock market bull of 2017 reveals a tag: "Made in China".

After a record-breaking push last week, the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) was ambivalent for a second day in a row. It ended the day up 5.99 points or 0.17 per cent to 3,442.35, bringing it back to where it started on Monday. On the large cap front, shipbuilder Yangzijiang, which has rallied significantly this year, notably fell 4.8 per cent to S$1.59.

While the usual suspects dominated market trading, unusual activity was spotted in some smaller counters. Some 235 million shares changed hands at precision engineering firm Allied Tech, which makes printer and copier parts. Israeli venture capital play The Trendlines Group rebounded 10 per cent to S$0.16.