Market Update: STI closes year down by less than 1 per cent

The local index ended the last day of 2020 trade in the red, but was still ahead for the month of December.

Despite the festive New Year's mood of the market in December, the Straits Times Index ended the year down by 25.41 points or 0.89% at 2,843.81.

However, the STI did put in a gain over the last month of trading, up by 1.35% or 37.86 points.

While the local bourse ended in the red on December 30, stock advancers still outnumbered decliners, 221 to 182, with 665.63 million securities worth S$548.41 million changing hands.

Among the top performers were SembCorp Industries up by 0.59% or S$0.01, and YZJ Shipbuilding Holdings higher by 0.53% or S$0.005.

Jardine Strategic Holdings meanwhile was the biggest loser ending at US$24.88 down by 3.23% or US$0.83. JSH was among the stocks identified by the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday as STI's strongest performers in the last quarter of the year.

On to Wall Street, where US stocks hit record highs, ending the year in investor cheers.

The Dow Jones Industrial closed at 30,606.48 up by 196.92 points or 0.65%, the S&P 500 was up by 24.03 points or 0.64% to 3,756.07, while the NASDAQ ended at 12,888.28 higher by 18.28 points or 0.14%.

Meanwhile, it was a lackluster end of the year for UK stocks mainly due to pandemic scares and the stimulus effort to dampen the economic hit from the crisis.

The FTSE 250 ended 2020 trade lower by 1.10% or 226.81 points to 20,488.30. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 declined by 95.30 points or 1.45% to 6,460.52.