STI gains 2.1% in week on Wall St highs, oil recovery

A REBOUND in oil prices thanks to a positive Opec meeting, end-of-month price fixing/ window-dressing/portfolio rebalancing on Wednesday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average's push to new highs were the main features of the week that just passed, during which the Straits Times Index (STI) moved 31 points or 1.1 per cent into the black for 2016.

On Friday, however, the index fell 9.21 points to 2,919.37, cutting its gain for the week to 60 points or 2.1 per cent. Turnover, which surged on Wednesday, the last day of November, to a 2016 high of 2.9 billion units worth S$2.6 billion, fell progressively to S$1.7 billion on Thursday and then 1.7 billion units worth S$1.2 billion on Friday.

On most days when the STI rose, the broad market recorded more falls than rises; on Friday, the advance-decline score was 202 to 223 so the weakness was not as widespread as the index's fall would suggest.