Is the market in a sorry state?

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http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/singapore-markets/others/market-sorry-state-20140626

Optimists might draw comfort from the fact that the Straits Times Index has displayed decent resilience in the face of adverse overseas signals, spending almost all of yesterday in the black before ending only 0.49 of a point weaker at 3,261.54 despite a large Tuesday slide on Wall Street.

Pessimists, on the other hand, might argue that volume is poor and concentrated on penny stocks - hardly hallmarks of a healthy market. In yesterday's session, 2.2 billion units worth $861 million were traded, an average of 39 cents per unit, lower than Tuesday's 44 cents.

Optimists might then say that the low volume suggests that selling is well-contained, a testimony to the local market's "safe haven" reputation.

Pessimists would reasonably counter that low volume is not a recent phenomenon since it stretches back more than a year, and that the absence of liquidity in blue chips illustrates the aversion that big money has to this region.