ST Index tumbles to five-month low

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday downgraded its forecasts for global growth, delivering a blow to Western markets and dragging Wall Street 1.5 per cent lower that day. Even though the US market's influence here has waned over the past months - many triple-digit moves had almost no impact on the local market - that fall was felt on Wednesday throughout Asia. The Hang Seng Index lost 0.7 per cent, and the Nikkei 225 1.2 per cent. The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 17.28 points or 0.5 per cent to a five-month low of 3,226.71, its second loss in a week after it closed at 3,228 on Oct 2.

Turnover was 1.2 billion units worth S$894 million and excluding warrants, there were 132 rises versus 278 falls.

The IMF downgrade was the third such revision this year and it came with a warning of weaker growth in core eurozone economies, Japan and big emerging markets like Brazil. Global growth is now forecast to be 3.3 per cent this year instead of 3.4 per cent and 3.8 per cent next year instead of 4 per cent.