Singapore shares close lower for fourth straight session on Brexit worries

AN uneasy calm descended upon the local stock market on Tuesday with traders hesitant to commit themselves ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting this week and next week's UK referendum on continued membership in the European Union.

Turnover, which has already been poor over the past few weeks, remained low at 949 million units worth S$815.4 million, of which S$578 million or 71 per cent came from the 30 Straits Times Index (STI) components. The STI in the meantime, sank to a 17.1 points loss at 2,768.33, its fourth consecutive fall after five successive rises.

In this regard it was most probably influenced by movements in the Dow futures - after an early rise, the contract dipped 60 points into the red in afternoon trading.

With the index weak, the broad market followed suit, recording 138 rises versus 224 falls excluding warrants. The average value per unit traded was S$0.86, suggesting low-priced issues were the main trading targets. A glance at the top 20 actives confirmed this, with 19 priced below S$1 and 10 below S$0.10.

One active stock that stood out was cleanroom specialist Acromec, which rose S$0.045 or 7.8 per cent to S$0.625 on volume of 12.6 million. The stock had been listed on Catalist on April 18 at an offer price of S$0.22, bringing its gain in just under two months to 184 per cent.