Straits Times Index clings to early gains
Wednesday March 27, 1:07 PM
sg.news.yahoo.com
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore shares clung to early gains by midday on Wednesday, led by encouraging news from Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and OCBC Bank, but they were unable to break decisively higher.
The key Straits Times Index rose 0.73 percent or 13.04 points to 1,807.15. The index is up 11.3 percent in 2002 but has been trapped between 1,780-1,810 range for the past few weeks.
"When it picks up above the 1,800 level, it does seem to run out of steam because the buyers are not willing to chase the high valuations," said Chew Sutat, associate director at OCBC Securities.
"The market's pretty much stalemated for now, until the end of the quarter as fund managers would like to get through the first quarter fairly comfortably with some profits to show on their balance sheets."
Gainers beat losers 149 to 94 in the broader market. Volume rose to 357 million shares from 242 million at the break on Tuesday.
Media conglomerate SPH, one of Asia's largest newspaper groups, climbed 2.5 percent to S$24.50 after unveiling late on Tuesday a better than expected set of first half results, with net profit down 20.3 percent to S$163 million ($89.1 million). |
