Noble, O&M selloff sees STI lose ground

AFTER the excitement and volatility of last week, Tuesday's session in the local stock market had a more familiar look to it - the Straits Times Index traded within a narrow band before ending a net 3.82 points weaker at 3,341.07.

Volume, however, picked up and amounted to 1.4 billion units worth S$1.2 billion largely because of heavy selling of Noble Group and pressure on offshore and marine (O&M) stocks. The market's focus was narrow - excluding warrants, the advance-decline score was 164-226 which meant that about 400 counters were either not traded or unchanged.

Overseas markets provided little direction - Wall Street on Monday extended its Friday loss with the S&P 500 dropping 0.8 per cent, reportedly because of weak oil prices.