THE relief rally markets enjoyed on Friday extended into Monday when news filtered in that European authorities have managed to hammer out some kind of settlement with Greece. The outcome was a 31.34 points rise in the Straits Times Index (STI) to 3,311.22, albeit one that came with low volume of 1.4 billion units worth S$872 million.

In the morning session there was a sense that no matter how bad things may look, the European authorities would surely pull out all the stops to avoid the disaster of a Greek exit. It was this hope of an eventual settlement that added about 16 points to the STI at noon; by the time news came that some sort of agreement had been struck, the index added a further 16 points.

About S$531 million or 61 per cent of total volume was done in the 30 STI components. The average value per unit traded was S$0.62 pointing to a penny stock-dominated session. This was borne out from a glance at the top 20 actives - 16 were priced under S$0.50.