Banks, Singtel help STI gain 1.1% for the week

INVESTORS have expressed concern in the past that the death of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew might have an adverse impact on the local stock market.

They needn't have worried. Over the course of the week, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 38 points or 1.1 per cent to 3,450.10, suggesting that the market was more preoccupied with other matters; on Friday, the index gained 18.51 on the back of a turnover of 1.6 billion units worth S$1.1 billion.

External factors included gyrations on Wall Street from interest rate expectations, the rise of ISIS and the conflict in Yemen in the Middle East and a flow of money towards Europe, where quantitative easing…