Trading slows ahead of CNY holidays

THE closure of Wall Street for President's Day on Monday and the approaching Chinese New Year holidays meant that Tuesday's session for the local market was largely nondescript, the Straits Times Index (STI) dropping 11.25 points to 3,415.91 on low volume of 995 million units worth S$936 million.

Index stocks that contributed the most to the loss were UOB and Singtel, the former's 29 cent slide to S$22.95 on volume of 3.2 million cutting four points off the STI, while the latter's four-cent fall to S$4.24 sliced another 3.4 points. With the index weak and volume thin, the advance-decline score for the entire market was 175-227.

Among the other stocks in focus was commodities firm Noble Group, the target of a short-selling attack by new research firm Iceberg Research (IR) which, in a report issued on Sunday, alleges that Noble has exploited accounting loopholes to pad its financials. After an 8 per cent loss on Monday, Noble's shares on Tuesday dropped six cents or 5.4 per cent to S$1.05 on volume of 63.7 million. It was the day's most active counter.