Play on second liners as market drifts

BEREFT of direction because Hong Kong was closed for Easter Monday, the Straits Times Index kicked off the week by drifting to a 17.1-point loss at 2,830.29, leaving traders to punt the second line to try and make money. Volume dwindled to 2.5 billion units worth S$773.4 million, down sharply from Thursday's S$1.2 billion and excluding warrants there were 182 rises versus 195 falls.

Helping cushion the fall was a rise in the Dow futures which suggested that Wall Street would at least open in the black on Monday. At 5pm, it stood 50 points higher. The index was dragged lower by falls in the three banks and Singtel. The day's most active stock was Annica Holdings, which lost S$0.001 at S$0.001 on huge volume of 1.1 billion units. Annica accounted for 44 per cent of the entire market. It was queried by the Singapore Exchange. At 5.33pm, it announced that it was not aware of any information not previously a…