Noble, oil & gas stocks in heavy play

HEAVY trading of Noble Group's shares as well as stocks from the oil and gas (O&G) and healthcare sectors livened up Thursday's session and provided dealers and day traders with plenty to occupy themselves. The Straits Times Index (STI), in the meantime, opened at 2,901 in response to Wall Street's overnight rally that came when oil prices rose to near US$50 per barrel, but drifted lower in tandem with a slide in the Dow futures.

At 5pm, the STI stood only 3.43 points higher at 2,885.22, just three points in the black for the year so far. Turnover was heavy by recent standards at two billion units worth S$1.1 billion. Of the unit volume, 436 million or 21 per cent came when Noble Group rose S$0.013 or 7.3 per cent to S$0.191, bringing its gain since sinking to an all-time low of S$0.112 on Sept 2 to 71 per cent now.

Brokers pointed to a report by Religare Capital Markets which said Noble's balance sheet is about to be transformed.