US relief rally helps perk up STI

ACTIVITY in local stocks remained subdued on Tuesday as traders appeared relatively unexcited by Wall Street's all-time Monday high. The Straits Times Index (STI) traded within a narrow band before ending 7.18 points higher at 3,235.69, turnover was low at 1.3 billion units worth S$993 million. Excluding warrants, there were 215 rises versus 190 falls.

The US market's Monday rally was attributed to relief - that Hurricane Irma petered out without doing as much damage as feared and that North Korea celebrated its founder's day without further missile or nuclear tests.

However, although the STI's response was disappointing, it was not wholly unexpected as the index had already on Monday failed to respond in any positive way to a large rise in the Dow futures.