Singapore stocks close weaker as STI tracks Dow futures, China volatility

The Straits Times Index on Wednesday moved in tandem with the US futures market as traders tried to anticipate how Wall Street might perform during its Wednesday session.

An early 100-point rise in the Dow Jones Industrials Average's futures raised hopes that the US market would rebound after Tuesday's plunge and thus lent some stability to the STI; however gains were capped by weakness in China and Hong Kong where the major indices ended in the red.

After rebounding to an intraday high of 2,906 most probably thanks to short covering, the STI ended the day at 2,878.13 for a loss of 4.64 points. At 5pm, the Dow futures' gain had been cut to around 60 points.

Turnover at 1.1 billion units worth S$986.4 million was weak, especially since S$700.3 million or 71 per cent was generated by the 30 index components. Excluding warrants, there were 179 rises versus 228 falls.