Fed minutes, play on banks main features; STI down 10 pts for the week

THIS week's main focus was the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's March Open Market Committee meeting, which showed that most Fed governors were against raising rates in April.

This gave trading funds the opportunity to push stocks higher, though the momentum did not last - after a jump on Wednesday, Wall Street indices dropped sharply on Thursday.

Friday trading in Singapore was weak and subdued, with the Straits Times Index losing 5.27 points at 2,808.32, and the market managing only one billion units worth S$772.7 million in trading volume, the lowest for the week. Over the five days the STI fell 10 points.