SGX Singapore Closing Market Update

A SURPRISE announcement by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) that its boss Magnus Bocker does not want to stay on after his contract expires in June, commodities firm Noble Group's ongoing tussle with short-selling firm Iceberg Research and slight softness in the banking sector - these were the main local features of interest in this week's trading.

On the external front there was not much happening - the US Federal Reserve's Janet Yellen delivered her semi-annual testimonies on the state of the US economy and said pretty much what markets expected, Greece and its European bailors reached an agreement of sorts on the country's debt repayments thus easing fears of a "Grexit", and the government here announced a Budget for the long term that had little impact on the market.