STI dips 0.2% on profit-taking

AN ENCOURAGING U.S. jobs report and hopes that Beijing's fiscal stimulus would support the Chinese economy should have given the market a further lift.

But investors turned to profit-taking after last week's rally as they looked for more clarity over the U.S.-China trade negotiations.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) thus slipped 7.22 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 3,315.42, even though 17 of the 30 blue chips that make up the STI ended in the black.

IG market strategist Pan Jingyi observed: "We saw the local STI opening the week higher, though gains had slowly petered out through the…