SGX - trading theme for Friday

THE sudden last-minute dumping of about 1.5 million DBS shares yesterday cut the Straits Times Index's gain from about eight points at 5pm to just 1.76 at 2,915.7 after the post-closing adjustment period at 5.06pm.

Brokers were understandably upset with the slide, which dragged DBS down from $14.52 to $14.12 in a few seconds. For the day, the stock lost 46 cents or 3.2 per cent. Volume was 5.3 million shares, so the last-minute sell-off - in parcels of 611,000 and 443,000 - accounted for about 20 per cent of the counter's daily volume.

'This looks very calculated and deliberate.' said a dealer. 'It can't be an error because two big blocks were involved.' For the week, DBS recorded an 18-cent or 1.3 per cent loss, while the STI rose 34 points or 1.2 per cent.

Trading themes were hard to come by. And the only one that punters could sink their teeth into - the Hong Kong dual-listing play - is looking a bit long in the tooth. This play emerged three months ago when China XLX Fertiliser listed some of its shares in HK. Its stunning first-day performance delighted brokers and corporate finance types, who latched on to it to recommend that others follow suit.

The latest to announce plans to list in HK in Swing Media, citing well-worn 'better valuations' as the main reason. Swing's shares swung into play as a result, appearing in the top volume list on Thursday and Friday, but although the counter rose to 6.5 cents in high volume, it ended the five days unchanged at six cents.

There was also spillover punting of others who have announced similar HK ambitions, such as Midas Holdings and Epure. The fact that China XLX and the second dual listing so far, Z-Obee, have both failed to perform as hoped for post-HK listing has been glossed over by a market starved of punting themes. This, it appears, has made it overly keen to embrace the 'better valuation' refrain.

Punters also showed keen interest in a handful of penny stocks other than those falling under the HK dual listing umbrella. Healthway Medical, for instance, enjoyed enhanced liquidity because of plans to expand clinics in China, a move praised by DMG & Partners in a 'buy' with a 30 cent target price.

Apart from Wednesday, when market breadth widened considerably, suggesting the entry of hordes of retail punters, the focus was narrow on most days. Genting Singapore was consistently the most active stock, perhaps because of the opening of Universal Studios. Given the sterling efforts of house traders to churn interest through rotational punting, what followed Genting on the actives list on any given day was anyone's guess.

In the previous week, Genting was regularly followed by Golden Agri and Indofood Agri. Yesterday, EuNetworks, PineAgritech and Abterra were favoured, most likely because of their low absolute prices rather than any fresh corporate developments.