Singapore stocks finish mixed in low volume

THE Straits Times Index spent most of Monday drifting with a slight upward bias as it tracked gains in the Dow futures. However, at 5pm it finished with a net loss of 3.02 points at 3,223.46, this despite a 60-points rise in the Dow futures that indicated a firm opening to the week for Wall Street.

The broad market excluding warrants recorded a marginally firm advance-decline score of 212-197 though turnover, which had spiked up to S$1.26 billion on Friday, dropped back to 1.2 billion units worth S$845.3 million on Monday. Friday's volume jump, however, was most probably thanks to quarter-ending window-dressing.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index on Monday rose only by a modest 0.08 per cent, possibly a factor that capped gains here.