Stocks drift marginally lower

THE Straits Times Index drifted to a 2.39-point loss at 2,813.87 on Monday, the last day of October. Possibly thanks to month-ending "portfolio rebalancing", turnover amounted to 1.2 billion units worth S$978 million - still below the ballpark S$1 billion industry breakeven point but nonetheless an improvement over last week's S$770 million average. Excluding warrants there were 179 rises versus 189 falls, indicating a mixed session.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended slightly weaker, while the Dow futures rose about 40 points in Asian trading but lost about half of this by 5pm.

Among local blue chips, DBS reported Q3 net profit of S$1.07 billion, unchanged from a year earlier and marginally better than the S$1.04 billion that analysts had expected. Its shares ended S$0.10 higher at S$15 on volume of 5.1 million.