Bout of short-covering as Dow futures rise

A 50-point rise in the June Dow futures helped trigger a bout of short-covering here that pushed the Straits Times Index up 10.33 points to 2,811.25 on Wednesday.

Turnover dropped from Tuesday's moderate S$1.1 billion to a mediocre 1.2 billion units worth S$915.3 million and the broad market excluding warrants recorded 211 rises versus 157 falls.

Wall Street fell sharply on Tuesday but the local market had already sold off in advance of this, the STI losing 34 points that day. Wednesday's trading was therefore dictated by the Dow futures, oil prices and to a lesser extent, Hong Kong and China. None of these markets underwent particularly significant movements, hence the relatively tame session here.