Blue chips, penny stocks ease amid low volume

THE Straits Times Index fell 12.37 points to 3,496.24 on Wednesday, dragged lower by expectations of weakness ahead on Wall Street which came after European markets opened in the red and Hong Kong gave up most of its morning gains.

The penny segment in the meantime, continued to exhibit signs of fatigue with prices mainly softening in low volume. Business done amounted to 1.8 billion units worth S$1.2 billion for a unit average of S$0.67 and excluding warrants, the entire market's advance-decline score was 200-287. Last week at the height of the penny flurry, daily volume was around 2.5 billion units and dollar value averaged S$1.5 billion.

Turnover in STI components on Wednesday was 232.2 million units worth S$140 million, which in dollar terms was just 11.6 per cent of total volume. For most of last year, daily volume in STI stocks comprised about 50-60 per cent of daily dollar turnover.