Rebounding banks help push STI up

AFTER a two-day correction (or bout of short-selling), a rebound (or short-covering) in the three banks on Thursday helped elevate the Straits Times Index by 25.19 points to 3,261.84.

Turnover, however, was a low 1.2 billion units worth S$957.3 million and excluding warrants there were 258 rises versus 158 falls throughout the whole market, so trading was actually quite firm and in line with the index.

The STI's rise came despite a marginal loss for the Dow futures in the morning, the closure of Hong Kong for the Mid-Autumn Festival and a mixed opening across Europe in the late afternoon.