Wall Street sell-off finally takes its toll

WALL Street may not have had much of an impact here this year but Monday was an exception with the Straits Times Index plunging 29.99 points or 0.9 per cent to 3,294.14 in the wake of a large Friday selloff in the US. A firm opening for Europe - probably short covering after Friday's selling - helped the STI bounce off its intraday low of 3,285.

Not surprisingly, it was the banks that led the losses since they had provided the main support for the STI over the past 3-4 weeks. There was also weakness in oil price-sensitive stocks like Keppel Corp, Sembcorp Industries and Sembcorp Marine which added to the drag on the index.

All told, it was a poor start to the week for the local market with a weak 994.8 million units worth S$881.1 million traded and with the entire market only managing 111 rises versus 321 falls, excluding warrants. It was the lowest dollar total since S$875.4 million was traded on Dec 3 when the market only opened at 12:30pm because of a computer problem.