Odds favour play on STI as end of Q1 nears

Normally, the advice to investors would be to watch for key economic releases or meetings in the week ahead to try and gauge how equities might behave, bearing in mind, of course, that bad economic news is good for stocks.

In addition, the oil market should also be observed carefully, given the drop in oil prices at the end of last week that brought the sellers out in force.

However, important though these considerations may be, they will probably be relegated to secondary importance because of the approach of a key date - March 31, or the end of the first quarter on Thursday.