Singapore shares track Wall St gains, end week in the black

LOCAL shares finished the week on a high, in tandem with Wall Street stocks that rose on hopes of a US stimulus package. Market watchers noted that the final US presidential debate on Friday was less chaotic than the first, but offered little in terms of new information on which way the vote counts were turning.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) ended the week up 0.4 per cent or 8.98 points at 2,537.39. Decliners outnumbered advancers 213 to 177, with some 1.25 billion securities worth S$928.7 million having changed hands.

The positive investor sentiment was echoed at Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indices each gained 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.2 per cent.