Singapore shares close lower after sharp drops on Wall Street
Posted by Margaret Gerber on November 15th, 2011
Singapore shares closed lower on Friday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index at 2,730.34, down 1.72 per cent, or 47.91 points.
I was with my best friend of 22+ years watching some college football this weekend. We of course talked about a variety of things from our many years of friendship. One of the things we chatted about was a story that I’d heard from him and other friends over the years but wasn’t reminded of until recently. 
Despite the recent spate of startups scoring millions and even hundreds of millions in venture capital, the number of U.S. funds raising venture capital totaled only 37 in the second quarter of 2011, a 23 percent decrease from the second quarter of 2010, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). This marks the lowest number of VC funds since the first half of 1995.
WELSH business leaders yesterday cautiously welcomed a better-than-expected GDP figure of 0.5% growth in the third quarter.
The figure was ahead of the 0.3% to 0.4% that many economists had predicted.
However, any hopes that the recovery is back on track were dashed by latest manufacturing PMI figures which showed that the sector contracted and hit a 28-month low in September.
But, with minutes from the most recent Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee suggesting the UK is set for close to zero growth in the fourth quarter, the Office for Budget Responsibilitys annual growth prediction of 1.7% increasingly looks over-optimistic.
The growth of 0.5% in quarter four means the economy grew by 0.6% over the six-month period, after just 0.1% growth in Q2.
The ONS said the overall figure was boosted by a strong performance from the services sector, which rose 0.7%, compared with a rise of 0.2% in the previous quarter.
The business services and finance sector recorded its strongest growth since the third quarter of 2007, particularly in office administration and business support services.
The growth in services, which represents about three-quarters of the economy, helped offset a 0.6% contraction in the construction industry after a rise of 1.1% in the previous quarter.
Production industries, which include manufacturing and oil and gas production, also increased 0.5%, compared with a fall of 1.2% in the previous quarter.
However, many considered that the rise in the third quarter was unsurprising, given that it followed a second quarter depressed by an unusually warm spring, the effects of the Japanese tsunami and the extra bank holiday for the royal wedding.
The 0.5% increase over the last three months is the strongest quarterly growth for four years but its simply the economy playing catch-up after a frighteningly bad second quarter, said Rob Lewis, chairman of business advisory firm PwC in Wales.
Quarter two was hit by a variety of factors including the royal wedding and an extra bank holiday, which collectively conspired to drive down growth.
However this seemingly improved Q3 growth has been impacted by the October Purchasing Managers Survey, which shows the sharpest monthly decline since 2009.
On present performance growth for 2011 is unlikely to exceed 1% by much, with performance in some regions likely to be well below this.
Robert Lloyd Griffiths, director of the Institute of Directors in Wales, agreed that the outlook for growth was subdued.
You cant see the road ahead from the rear-view mirror, he said.