Singapore shares close lower in low volume

BEREFT of direction because Hong Kong was closed for Easter Monday, the Straits Times Index kicked off the week by drifting to a 17.1 points loss at 2,830.29, leaving traders to punt the second line to try and make money. Volume dwindled to 2.5 billion units worth S$773.4 million, down sharply from Thursday's S$1.2 billion and excluding warrants there were 182 rises versus 195 falls.

Helping cushion the fall was a rise in the Dow futures which suggested that Wall Street would at least open in the black on Monday. At 5pm it stood 50 points higher.

The index was dragged lower by falls in the three banks, and Singtel. The day's most active stock was Annica Holdings, which lost S$0.001 at S$0.001 on huge volume of 1.1 billion. In unit terms Annica accounted for 44 per cent of the entire market. It was queried by the Singapore Exchange but had yet to reply by the time trading ended at 5.05pm.