Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.03%

Find out who the biggest losers were.

According to KGI Fraser, major Asian markets ended the trading session down after a promising rally earlier in the week, with China and Japan equities all up for the week despite Friday’s decline. In a bid to regain investors' faith in Chinese stock markets, China has removed securities regulator head Xiao Gang after a volatile period and botch circuit-breaker experiment at the start of the year. The Agricultural Bank of China's chairman and former central bank deputy governor Liu Shiyu has taken over CSRC's helm.

Meanwhile, the STI ended the day marginally lower, dropping 0.03% or 0.70 points to close at 2,656.87, tracking declines in the broader Asian markets.

Here’s more from KGI Fraser:

Genting Singapore (S$0.720; +2.1%) saw its share price rise 2.1% despite recording an 85% year-on-year decline in its earnings for 2015. Telco operators SingTel (S$3.730; -0.8%) and StarHub (S$3.460; -0.9%) saw their shares underperform the STI after IDA announced plans to attract a fourth telco.

U.S. stocks also fell marginally on Friday, though still ending on a good note as the Dow and S&P 500 gained 2.6% and 2.8% respectively for the week. Crude oil prices also slipped on Friday, but still ended positive for the week as oil prices reacted positively to the decisions by oil producers to cap oil production.