Singapore shares finish higher in low volume

THE Straits Times Index on Wednesday tracked movements in overseas markets closely, first rising when the Dow futures bounced higher but sliding in the late afternoon when Europe opened in the red and the Dow futures started displaying some weakness.

At 5pm the index stood a net 8.55 points higher at 3,231.24. The broad market was relatively firm, recording 254 rises versus 194 falls, excluding warrants.

Turnover this year has shown improvement over last year's sub-S$1 billion daily averages, though both unit and dollar values have been slipping lately. On Wednesday, volume was 2 billion units worth S$994.2 million compared to S$1.3 billion a week ago.