Market weighed down by DBS, OCBC falls

STEEP falls in bank stocks DBS and OCBC on Thursday dragged 10.99 points off the Straits Times Index (STI) at 3,406.58 in a relatively quiet but weak session that ended with 157 rises in the whole market versus 243 falls. Turnover was one billion units worth S$1.1 billion, down from Wednesday's S$1.3 billion. Business in the 30 STI components came to S$449.4 million or 41 per cent of the turnover.

Brokers pointed to a weak opening for Europe as indicating a possible soft Thursday ahead for Wall Street, but this view lacked conviction as the futures market for US indices was relatively firm during Asian trading.

Among the banks, DBS stood out with an S$0.18 drop to S$19.42 on volume of 6.7 million shares that cut 3.7 points off the STI. OCBC'S S$0.09 loss at S$10.49 was a close second, slicing 3.2 points off. Also notable was Keppel Corp, which earlier this week looked like it might recover the S$9 level lost at the end of last year. The counter on Thursday slipped S$0.08 to S$8.86 with 9.8 million shares traded.