Jardine, banks support STI as oil, gas stocks weaken

A GENERALLY unremarkable week has just passed, made all the more unremarkable by the fact that there was no impact on local sentiment and prices from successive all-time highs on Wall Street leading up to its Thanksgiving closure on Thursday.

Instead, a selldown in oil and gas stocks was counterbalanced by support for banks DBS and UOB and Jardine group, enabling the Straits Times Index to rise 9.54 points on Friday to 3,350.50, bringing its gain for the week to five points.

On Friday, oil and gas leaders such as Keppel Corp, Sembcorp Marine, Ezra and Ezion Holdings all suffered significant selloffs as oil prices continued to sag. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) on Thursday failed to reach an agreement to cut oil production, leading to further…