STI ends flat on weak Europe opening

WALL Street's Tuesday rise helped calm some nerves and prompted a bout of short-covering that pushed the Straits Times Index higher for most of Wednesday. A weak opening for Europe, however, cut the index's gain to just 0.57 of a point at 2,546.18. Intraday peak was 2,584.

Turnover was by recent standards mediocre at 809.8 million units worth S$982 million and the broad market excluding warrants recorded 224 rises versus 166 falls.

Helping cap the index's rise was weakness in the Shanghai Composite and the Dow futures, the latter dropping about 50 points in Asian trading.