Month-end, year-end window-dressing likely

LAST week's column suggested that apart from the banks there was nothing to suggest a drastic departure from the low-volume, low-volatility trading which has been a hallmark of daily market life for about 8-9 months now.

This was indeed the case - other than the banks, the occasional play on SingTel, weakness in the offshore marine sector and very tradeable volatility in Genting Singapore, there wasn't much else to, well, bank on.

Our guess is that the banking push comes from three sources - an upgrade of arguably the only really performing sector following the conclusion of Q3 reporting, traders latching on to the only stocks with momentum and liquidity and a fair amount of month-ending window-dressing as underperforming funds capitalise on a window of opportunity to prop up the Straits Times Index or the MSCI Singapore index.