STI tracks Wall Street losses, down 0.59% at 2,528.64

THE Straits Times Index (STI) slid 0.59 per cent or 14.93 points on Tuesday to 2,528.64 points, tracking overnight Wall Street's losses due to dwindling hopes for a stimulus deal.

Ground handler and inflight caterer Sats was the top performing STI stock, riding on Monday's momentum. It gained 1.96 per cent or 6 Singapore cents for the day to close at S$3.12.

Coming in last at the bottom of the STI's performance table was transport heavyweight ComfortDelGro, which lost 3.38 per cent or 5 Singapore cents to S$1.43. This was despite RHB Securities recommending a "buy" on the stock, saying that its Singapore rail business should benefit from gradual improvements in public transport ridership as the economy further re-opens.

The most heavily traded counter was penny stock Jiutian Chemical, with a dizzying trading volume of about 534.7 million, far ahead of the second most active counter Oceanus, which saw 104.4 million change hands. Jiutian Chemical closed 0.1 cent up at 8 Singapore cents, following an announcement on Monday that it is looking to raise up to about S$10.3 million through a placement of up to 170 million new shares at an issue price of 6.03 Singapore cents.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 228 to 162 for the day, with 1.99 billion securities worth S$1.09 billion traded.

Regional bourses were mixed.

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Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dropped 0.44 per cent to 23,567.04 at the closing bell, as did its Australian counterpart S&P/ASX 200, which slipped 0.72 per cent to close at 6,184.58. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index dropped 0.47 per cent to 1,510.97 points.

By contrast, the Shanghai Composite Index registered a 0.47 per cent gain at 3,328.10 points, recovering from Monday's losses on disappointing economic data.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 0.11 per cent higher at 24,569.54, and South Korea's Kospi Index was up 0.50 per cent to 2,358.41.