Suntec Reit lifts market volume to S$1.8b

THE Straits Times Index traded within a narrow band on Tuesday before ending a net 4.46 points higher at 3,344.99, unaffected by a large reversal in Hong Kong.

Turnover, which has shown slight improvement over the past couple of weeks, received a large boost from a very late trade of Suntec Reit units. In total, the counter traded 180.2 million units and gained S$0.03 at S$1.935, the value of which amounted to S$347.3 million. Of this, some 150 million was done in the final few minutes. This helped elevate the market's turnover to 1.8 billion units worth S$1.8 billion - the highest since S$1.7 billion was done on July 30 and possibly the highest this year.

Brokers said this could be due to Suntec Reit replacing Olam International in the MSCI Singapore Index from Wednesday onwards. Olam ended S$0.05 weaker at S$2.15 on volume of 40 million done.