Mixed views about direction of market in June

MAY was a largely forgettable month for the local stock market, with the Straits Times Index (STI) labouring to a 95 points or 2.7 per cent loss at 3,392 over the four weeks. A bursting equity bubble in China and Hong Kong, unsureness over when the US will raise interest rates and Greece's ongoing financial woes were said to have provided the main backdrop, one which it has to be said was not particularly benign to equity investment.

If anything, the weak showing for the month only lent credence to the old saying "sell in May and go away". Which begs the question: if you sold in May and went away, do you return to buy in June?

Optimists would say "yes" and bank on the argument that conditions, having sunk as low as they have, surely have to improve from their present dire state. After all, if liquidity has been weak for almost two years now, then surely there's only one direction it can go - up. With the STI now just 27 points in the black for 2015, the bottom must surely be close.