THE Singapore market continued to skid southwards and deeper into sub-3,000 territory on Monday after an ominous gap-down in early trade that had no immediately obvious trigger apart from Wall Street's Friday tumble - which itself appeared to have been brought about by the same fears that overran local shares last week.

Notching up its worst drop since the dark days of the global financial crisis, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell 127.62 points to end the day at 2,843.39, amid a losing streak that has lasted six sessions. Its 4.3 per cent dive was the sharpest percentage drop since an 8.3 per cent plunge in October 2008, and marked an accelerating pace of decline over the past few days.

The index broke below successive psychological levels of 2,950 and then 2,860 to reach its lowest point since June 2012's 2,841.6, with some analysts warning it could fall even further to as low as 2,698 - its early June 2012 trough.