Singapore: Index rises but broad market stays weak

THE Straits Times Index (STI) kicked off the week by spending the entire session in the red before a push in the final seconds took it to a nett 1.03 points gain at 3,403.89.

Sentiment here was largely unaffected by an interest rate cut in China that pushed the Hang Seng and China indices higher. Instead, the STI appeared to run on either its own steam or on expectations of how Wall Street might perform in the session ahead and was dragged into the red by falls in DBS and OCBC.

Turnover was in line with recent daily averages at 1.4 billion units worth S$1.3 billion and excluding warrants, there were 169 rises versus 289 falls, indicating an overall weak session.