Few features of interest as STI drops 15 points in short week

IT WAS a holiday-shortened week in which the banks reported solid results, the US Federal Reserve did nothing unexpected at its Open Markets Committee meeting, and penny activity continued to dwindle as it has been doing since last October.

The first two days of the week saw the Straits Times Index lose about 30 points for reasons unknown, before a window-dressing-aided rebound on Wednesday restored most of this loss. The push came mainly from the banks after DBS and OCBC released their first quarter results.

Selling of the Jardine group yesterday contributed to a 12.16 loss and for the week, the STI was down 15 points at 3,252.55. UOB was possibly the largest contributor, down 91 cents or 4 per cent over the five days at $21.50. The weekly gain of DBS was 37 cents at $17.17 and OCBC was up 10 cents at $9.72.