ON THE external front, the main issue that drove stock prices this past week was whether bickering US politicians would be able to reach a compromise on the country's finances. As it turned out, there were flickering signs they might, though as of Thursday in the US, nothing was confirmed yet.

On the home front, the talking point was the Singapore Exchange's (SGX's) labelling of three speculative stocks, namely Asiasons Capital, Blumont and LionGold, as designated securities, which means purchases have to be paid for upfront and "contra" trading is not allowed.

Predictably, all three crashed spectacularly. There was also spillover impact on the rest of the penny segment, not surprisingly leading to criticisms from retail brokers, many of whom rely on trading penny stocks to supplement declining income and may have been wrong-footed by the SGX's actions.