Singapore shares close mixed, even as STI enjoys late push

THE final US presidential debate will take place at 9am local time on Thursday, which could explain Wednesday's quiet and relatively listless trading session.

In keeping with a recent, well-established pattern, the Straits Times Index (STI) drifted within a narrow band, spending most of the day tracking the Dow futures before a late push enabled it to close with a net gain of 13.99 points at 2,844.62.

The slight upward bias, though, was most likely thanks to firmer oil prices and encouraging earnings reported by US firms on Tuesday.

Unit volume, however, was elevated by rotational punting of low-priced speculatives and amounted to 1.7 billion units, though the dollar value done was a paltry S$892 million. The average worked out to S$0.52 per unit. Excluding warrants, there were 178 rises versus 187 falls.