Singapore: Ezion, GLP & YuuZoo provide main features in soft week

EZION on Monday to Wednesday, Global Logistics Properties on Thursday and YuuZoo on Friday - although it would be a slight exaggeration to say that the entire week's trading could be summed up by the plays on these three stocks, there was precious little else to speak about in a week that was as forgettable as the ones that preceded it this year.

True, there was weakness in Genting Singapore but that is to be expected given the casino operator's weak results and dim outlook for VIP traffic. There was also furniture firm Nobel Design's accounting problems which were newsworthy, as was the large jump in iFAST's shares on Wednesday after a "buy" report from DBS Vickers.

On the external front, there was the anti-climatic release of April's US Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting's minutes which revealed nothing that the market did not already know, although this did not stop Wall Street's indices from reaching new all-time highs.

But, by and large, it was not a notable five days by any standards - one dealer described the market as having lost its "mojo", perhaps as apt a description as any. The Straits Times Index fell on Monday to Wednesday and rose on Thursday and Friday, moves that looked suspiciously like short-selling ahead of Wednesday's release of the FOMC minutes followed by short-covering.

Whatever the case, Friday's 10.32 point bounce to 3,450.18 helped ensure that the index stayed above 3,450 even though it fell 13 points or 0.4 per cent over the five days.