Wall St closure leaves market bereft of direction

WITH Wall Street closed on Monday for President's Day and with traders waiting to hear details of the Singapore government's Budget 2017, the fine-tuned machine that is the local stock market drifted for most of the session in relatively subdued trading. The Straits Times Index (STI) slipped into the red for almost the entire session and finished 10.96 points weaker at 3,096.69, largely through losses in Jardine Matheson and the three banks.

Turnover amounted to 2.6 billion units worth S$1.05 billion compared to last week's S$1.4 billion daily average. Excluding warrants, there were 196 rises versus 274 falls. Hong Kong closed higher and Europe opened in the black.

The unit value traded was S$0.41 and of the 20 most actively traded stocks, 17 were priced below S$0.50.