STI drops 13 points in lacklustre week

IT HAS been another nondescript week for local stocks as prices drifted mainly south in poor volume and the Straits Times Index lost 13 points or 0.4 per cent at 3,292.21.

The loss would have been worse if not for a 1.22-point rise in the index on Friday, though the low volume of 1.2 billion units worth S$763 million and the weak advance-decline score of 150-262 excluding warrants that day rounded off a miserable week for brokers who by now have probably grown accustomed to weaker prices, thin volume and no phone calls.

All sorts of external sources have been blamed and investors can take their pick from any one of the following: increasing tensions in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, China slowing down, indifferent US economic data, worries over interest rate hikes, and a weakening eurozone.