S'pore shares end little changed, SingTel active
S'pore shares end little changed, SingTel active
Joyce Liu
Reuters
SINGAPORE
Singapore shares failed to hold in positive territory on
Tuesday as worried investors rushed to dump shares after short-
lived gains, with volume skewed by a massive block trade in
Singapore Telecommunications.
"The market could be volatile from now on but the uncertainty
about the future will keep a cap on any gains," said a trader at
a European brokerage.
After jumping more than 2 percent at one stage, the benchmark
Straits Times Index ended down 0.25 percent at 1,281.52 points on
concerns about U.S. military action after the Sept.11 attacks and
the worsening economy at home.
The STI, which gained 3.5 percent on Monday, has lost 18
percent since the attacks in New York and Washington and more
than 33 percent so far this year.
Turnover was a record two billion shares, against Monday's 405
million.
SingTel, which recently completed its acquisition of C&W Optus
in Australia, saw a block of 781 million shares crossed at S$1.64
on Tuesday afternoon.
Another 575 million of SingTel 100 and 301 million of SingTel
10 crossed at the same price.
The block was believed to belong to Britain's Cable & Wireless
Plc, which said in June it agreed to sell up to 848.7 million
SingTel shares it would get for its stake in Optus.
Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday it sold a block of 835 million
SingTel shares for a total of $782 million but declined to
discuss their origin or the identity of the buyer.
No one at SingTel was available to comment.
SingTel ended one cent higher at S$1.74 on volume of 792
million shares.
Overall momentum was initially helped after bullish comments
from top strategists lifted the Dow Jones industrial average to
its fifth-biggest point gain.
The Dow rose 4.47 percent or 368.05 points to 8,603.86 in its
first bounce since the attacks. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped
5.35 percent to 1,499.40 after plummeting 16 percent last week.
Singapore posted blazing 9.9 percent growth last year.
The government also said it was working on more substantial
off-budget measures than the S$2.2 billion ($1.26 billion)
package announced in July and would unveil details in mid-
October.