STI takes a breather, loses 4 points

AFTER last week's strong act, the local bourse's benchmark index had a valid excuse for a respite on Monday ahead of a data-light week and last Friday's modest losses in US equities.

The Straits Times Index headed south throughout the day but pared some losses to close 3.68 points or 0.12 per cent lower to finish at 3,165.7.

Other major regional markets put out a mixed showing. The benchmark indices in Hong Kong and China continued their previous week's robustness on the back of the US Federal Reserve's somewhat dovish signal on future rate hikes with the Hang Seng surging 0.8 per cent and the Shanghai Composite jumping 0.4 per cent.