Asian Market Update

Asian markets advanced for a second straight day Wednesday following another slate of impressive US data that helped the dollar march towards the 120-yen mark for the first time in seven years.

Oil prices edged up after suffering another sell-off in New York in reaction to news that Iraq had signed a deal that will see it export more crude to an already saturated world market.

Tokyo rallied 1.03 per cent by the break, Hong Kong added 1.10 per cent, Sydney gained 0.47 per cent and Shanghai was up 0.20 per cent while Seoul put on 0.16 per cent.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that US construction spending rose 1.1 per cent in September, almost twice as much as expected, while industry specialist AutoData said the car industry saw a healthy 4.6 per cent increase in sales last month.

SGX Singapore Market News Update

SINGAPORE Exchange (SGX) said programming changes over the weekend led to a software error that affected end-of-day processing on Dec 1.

All post-trade online systems, including the client-accounting system, have been available since 6am on Wednesday, SGX said.

The stock market's pre-open routine will begin at noon, with the open set for 12.30pm. The market will close as normal after 5pm.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has called the disruption "unacceptable" and warned that it could take supervisory action if necessary.

SGX Singapore Closing Market Update

SINGAPORE shares ended higher on Tuesday with the Straits Times Index gaining 16.68 points to 3,322.32.


Some 1.18 billion shares, valued at S$1.07 billion were traded. 

Gainers numbered 219 while losers numbered 171.