STI closes flat, down 0.1% to cap a broody week

SINGAPORE shares capped a rather broody week on a flat note, with the key Straits Times Index (STI) down two points or 0.08 per cent at 2,490.09 on Friday after a renewed rout in US mega-gap tech shares.

The market's key barometer lost 0.8 per cent over the week on worries that the US tech bears, still at lofty valuations, could portend something deeper. Concerns were rife on whether, for example, the meltdown would turn more broad-based and engulf other stocks and asset classes.

Dashed Covid-19 vaccine hopes - a key to jump-starting the global economic recovery - and a bearish oil market, plus the likelihood of a no-deal hard Brexit added to the uncertainty, curbing traders' risk appetite.