Sell-off in Asian markets sends STI to its lowest since mid-2012

Singapore

WAVES of selling engulfed Asian stock markets on Thursday following a 7-per-cent collapse in China stocks, which triggered the circuit breakers for the second time in four days before trading was halted for the rest of the day.

By late Thursday, however, Beijing announced that it would from Friday suspend the circuit-breaker mechanism implemented on Jan 1.

Deng Ke, the spokesman for the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said in a statement: "Currently, negative effects of the mechanism are larger than positive effects. Thus, the CSRC has decided to suspend the circuit-breaker mechanism to maintain market stability."

With the collapse in China stocks on Thursday, the Straits Times Index plunged 74.36 points or 2.7 per cent to 2,729.91, its lowest since June 2012. Turnover, which has regularly averaged less than S$1 billion daily, swelled to 1.3 billion units worth S$1.6 billion…