STI falls after US slumps on Fed minutes

SINGAPORE shares ended lower on Thursday even as China powered ahead as it resumed trading after a week-long Chinese New Year hiatus.

Mainland China reopened on Thursday, with the CSI 300 Index - which tracks the large caps listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen - closing 2.2 per cent higher, its biggest gain since August 2016. The Shanghai Composite was up 69.40 points, or 2.17 per cent, at 3,268.56.

But elsewhere, Asian equity markets were mostly in the red, after taking their cue from the overnight decline of 0.67 per cent in the Dow Jones Industrial Average which ended at 24,797.78. The Hang Seng Index l…