Weak oil, Wall St slide drag stocks down

THE Straits Times Index on Tuesday slumped to a 24.89-point or 0.86-per cent loss at 2,876.03 in response to an overnight slide on Wall Street and large falls in Hong Kong, Japan and China.

The trigger for the selloff in the US was a steep fall in oil prices which took them to their lowest level since February 2009, and as a result brought pressure to bear on related stocks here like Keppel Corp, Sembcorp Marine, Ezra and Ezion.

Turnover amounted to 991 million units worth S$913 million, an improvement over Monday's weak S$759 million, partly because of the contribution of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) which resumed trading after a one-day halt. Excluding warrants, there were 108 rises versus 276 falls.