STI falls as traders eye key Fed testimony

IT was downhill from the second half of the trading session for the Singapore bourse as investors stayed light ahead of a significant risk event - US Fed chairman Jerome Powell's inaugural semi-annual monetary policy testimony to Congress.

After trending upwards for much of the first-half session, the key Straits Times Index (STI) buckled on cautious sentiment and closed lower by 15.46 points or 0.4 per cent to 3,540.39 which nearly pushed the index into negative territory for the month. Just one day shy of wrapping up February's trading, the STI is up 0.2 per cent for the month.

Elsewhere in the region, bourses put on a mixed showing. China's Shanghai Composite snapped six straight sessions of gains and fell 1.13 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.7 per cent. Japan's Nikkei 225 climbed 1.07 per cent while Australia's ASX 200 extended gains for the fifth straight session, this time by 0.2 per cent.