Singapore shares close higher in extended relief rally on Greek news

The relief rally markets enjoyed on Friday extended into Monday when news filtered in that European authorities have managed to hammer out some kind of settlement with Greece. The outcome was a 31.34-point rise in the Straits Times Index to 3,311.22, albeit one that came with low volume of 1.4 billion units worth S$872 million.

In the morning session there was a sense that no matter how bad things may look, the European authorities would surely pull out all the stops to avoid the disaster of a Greek exit. It was this hope of an eventual settlement that added about 16 points to the Straits Times Index at noon; by the time news came that some sort of agreement had been struck, the index added a further 16 points.

About S$531 million or 61 per cent of total volume was done in the 30 STI components. The average value per unit traded was S$0.62 pointing to a penny stock-dominated session. This was borne out from a glance at the top 20 actives - 16 were priced under S$0.50.

The main support for the STI came from the banks, all three closing higher. Also lending its weight to pushing the index into the black was Singtel and the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Among the index decliners was Genting Singapore, its fall to an intraday low of S$0.875 would surely have been disappointing to observers who had come to believe that S$0.90 was the counter's bottom. Genting ended a net S$0.005 weaker at S$0.89 on volume of 19.6 million.