Is STI on the verge of entering a bear market?

AT Friday's close of 2,832.64, the Straits Times Index stands 706 points or around 20 per cent below its 2015 closing high of 3,539 on April 15.

In generally accepted market wisdom, a fall of this magnitude in a relatively short span of time (five months) suggests that the local stock market is on the verge of officially entering a bear market.

This may dismay many observers, among them dealers and retail investors, who have had to withstand a seemingly never-ending flow of negative news this year - the Greek debt crisis, China's slowing economy and imploding, volatile stock market, the will-they-or-won't-they quandary that surrounds the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions and alarming weakness in commodity prices.