Trading active despite focus on Budget

NO prizes for guessing that most attention in Singapore was placed on Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat's delivery of the Singapore Budget for 2019.

But markets never sleep, at least not from 9 am to 5 pm in Singapore's case. Trade activity on the day saw the Singapore bourse's daily average turnover clock in at roughly 1.47 billion securities worth S$929.84 million. This worked out to an average unit price of S$0.63 per security. Advancers outnumbered decliners 214 to 176.

Markets in the region started the week with broad gains on the back of thawing US-China relations following trade talks in Beijing that had sent Wall Street's …