Stocks weaken ahead of National Day

IT WAS a case of "another day, another all-time high'' for the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday but this made little impression here on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index drifting lower for the second consecutive day, this time dropping 2.59 points to 3,318.08. The Dow futures traded within a narrow band and at 5pm stood three points in the red.

Brokers described sentiment as cautious ahead of the National Day public holiday. Turnover amounted to 1.9 billion units worth S$1.3 billion and excluding warrants there were 238 rises versus 210 falls.

On Monday, it was DBS and OCBC which were chiefly responsible for the index closing lower; on Tuesday, it was mainly DBS. Traders said that the banks were probably the victims of having over-run their earnings and were now being re-assessed in light of their recent reported figures.