STI bucks regional trend on back of mixed data

ON Monday, investors in Asia had to process mixed news flows from the weekend, such as last Friday's unexpectedly strong US jobs report and Sunday's poor Chinese export figures.

That said, Asian equity benchmarks in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan managed to get the week off to a positive start, although gains were capped on worries about the effect the US-China trade scuffle has had on the world's second largest economy.

Missing from the group was Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI). The local benchmark struggled for direction, spending most of the session hovering around last Friday's close, before slipping late to close at 3,179.82, a decline of 14.89 points, or 0.5 per cent.