STI midday review

STI: +0.1% at 3064.73 as players digest the nearly completed earnings season. Trading activities may remain thin ahead of (the) weekend as well as holidays in parts of Asia next Monday, says UOB. Expects market sentiment to stay positive for the session as Singapore's NODX came in better than it expected and as Germany's Merkel said her country remains committed to keeping the euro. Volume is skewed toward lower liners at 1.01b shares valued at only $454.5m, suggesting retail, rather than institutional interest, is dominating trade; gainers top losers 1.3 to one. The index is likely to remain in a 3050-3088 range. Defensive duo SingTel and StarHub retrace some of Thursday's losses, rising 0.3% each. IT-services provider M Development is the top-volume play, with nearly 20% of shares traded after it said it would convert its convertible notes; Value Capital Asset Management increased its stake to 14.06% from 8.45% by converting notes; the stock is up 57.1% at $0.011.