Week ends on calmer note after initial plunge

IT may not be quite what the doctor ordered but the usually sedentary Singapore stock market got its most exercise in a long time over the past five sessions, as it swerved through a zigzag course that saw it cover the widest distance in a week in several years.

Having started with a precipitious 4.3 per cent plunge on Black Monday, its worst daily drop since the global financial crisis, the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) finished Friday on a far less grim note, ending 0.4 per cent or 10.51 points up at 2,955.94.

In between, it rebounded 1.5 per cent on Tuesday, slipped 0.5 per cent on Wednesday and then climbed back up by 2.5 per cent on Thursday. In terms of total absolute percentage points, these added up to the most ground the index has covered in one week since the first week of October 2011.