Word of the week: Premature

WHAT a week to remember. Traders are scrambling to reprice financial assets after a euphoric rise in the past year. Volatility, long expected to return, has done so with a bang. On Friday, China companies involved in banking, insurance, oil and gas, and property were hit especially hard.

On the local bourse, the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) ended the week at 3,377.24 points, down 38.66 points on Friday and down more than 150 points, or more than 4 per cent, for the week.

Having ended 2017 just above the 3,400-point mark, the STI is now underwater for the year. Large big-cap declines on Friday included Yangzi-jiang (-4.8 per cent), City Developments (-3.7 per cent), Keppel (-3.2 per cent), Genting (-3.2 per cent), and CapitaLand (-3.1 per cent).