Singapore: Plunge in US futures erases earlier gains

The Straits Times Index's movements on Tuesday were dictated first by the performance of the China and Hong Kong markets, and later by a sharp dip in the Dow futures and a weak opening for Europe.

The eventual loss of 13.8 points that the STI suffered at 2,868.47 after an earlier gain of 20 points suggested a slide on Wall Street on Tuesday - or perhaps a resumption of the short selling after Monday's short-covering.

Turnover, however, was a mediocre 1.5 billion units worth S$1.05 billion and excluding warrants the whole market's advance-decline score of 192-212 suggested most players were still cautious about the outlook for equities.

Overall, the session did not raise too many eyebrows - at the start of the week, expectations were that daily trading would be volatile with no clear direction.

There was also no particular pattern to the selling here. All three bank stocks were firm in the morning and early afternoon but had their gains erased in the final two hours. OCBC for example, first touched S$9.13 but ended at S$9.08 for a gain of S$0.07 that came with 6.8 million done.