Singapore: Pennies in play as STI dips

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index may have enjoyed a massive "catch up" rally on Wednesday to the tune of almost 4 per cent but there was no effect here with the Straits Times Index sliding 4.94 points to 3,460.68. With blue chips languishing it was left to penny stocks to keep interest alive and in this regard they did not disappoint - 17 of the 20 most active stocks were priced below S$0.50.

Overall turnover amounted to 2 billion units worth S$1.1 billion for an average value per unit traded of S$0.55 and excluding warrants, there were 248 rises versus 187 falls.

Given the local market's decoupling over the past few months to events in Hong Kong and China, there was little surprise that the STI did not track the Hang Seng's surge. Brokers instead pointed to expectations of how Wall Street would perform in the session ahead as playing a greater role.

Within the STI, falls in Jardine stocks and Singtel outweighed rises in the banks, whilst there were also notable contributions in Keppel Corp and Thai Beverage.

The actives list was headed by water treatment firm SIIC Environment which rose S$0.018 or 10.5 per cent to S$0.189 on volume of 202.5 million. Other familiar names on the list would be Magnus Energy, Darco Water, Vallianz and IHC.

Maybank Kim Eng on Wednesday maintained its "overweight" on the China water sector.