Japan's 3% plunge weighs on STI

THERE were worries before Monday's session that the Hong Kong-Shanghai connect would divert money and attention away from the local market, but as it turned out, the worry should have been centred further north - on Japan.

There, the unexpected news that the country was officially in a recession sent the Nikkei 225 falling by just under 3 per cent, triggering spillover selling across the region.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index (STI) opened in the red and did not recover through the day; it eventually ended at 3,288.67 for a nett loss of 27 points or 0.8 per cent, after having risen 29 points over last week.