THE Straits Times Index yesterday spent the whole day in negative territory but ended a nett 9.26 points higher at 2,672.57 thanks mainly to programme buying in the final hour of trading, ahead of an expected rise on Wall Street that was probably motivated by expectations that better-than-expected economic figures were to be released.

The broad market however, did not enjoy the same late flurry of buying as the index - excluding derivatives, there were only 139 rises versus 339 falls.

The STI had earlier in the day sunk to an intraday low of 2,634, a loss of almost 30 points that followed an overnight slide on Wall Street due to worse-than-expected consumer confidence numbers. Given that consumers make up 70 per cent of the US economy, this cast doubt on the strength of the US's economic recovery.

News reports indicated an uncertain week for the US market, with the release of GDP and Purchasing Managers' Index figures yesterday, manufacturing numbers today and employment data on Friday.

Given the late rise in the STI yesterday, this suggests that programme traders bought here in advance of possibly better-than-expected GDP and PMI figures in the US on Wednesday.

Here, SingTel's four-cent rise to $3.25 contributed 3.65 points to the STI's rise, making it the largest index contributor.

In a Sept 28 report, Morgan Stanley said it is retaining its 'overweight' on SingTel with a $3.65 price target after SingTel hosted its regional mobile day with presentations by senior management.

'We believe SingTel's shares are attractively valued at 12.7x FY2010E earnings given its diversified exposure to emerging market mobile businesses in Asia. The stock is trading at its NAV (net asset value) versus its historical average of a 10-15 per cent premium to NAV,' said MS.

Among the other large index movers was Singapore Airlines, which rose 28 cents to $13.78. In a Sept 28 report, Credit Suisse , maintained an 'outperform' on SIA, saying that the national carrier is a key beneficiary of a recovery in premium demand and the acceleration in tourist arrivals.

'Yields are still low but a demand recovery is the important first step and we think 2H2009 should mark the bottom for yields,' said CS. 'SIA's forward P/B (price/book) and EV/Ebitda (enterprise value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) are below historical averages . . . our new target price of $17.50 ($14 previously) implies 1.5x forward P/B, the mid-point of the historical average . . .' said CS.

Among the commodity counters which have enjoyed play recently is Wilmar International, which yesterday dropped 19 cents to $6.32 with 30 million traded despite the company having announced that it plans to list its China assets in HK and that the listing process has now reached an advanced stage.

In a Tuesday 'buy' on Wilmar, Kim Eng said Wilmar's share price has shown an increasing correlation with the Hang Seng and Shanghai indices.

'The current share price values Wilmar's non-China businesses at just 13.4x, which is sharply below its historical average of 19x (prior to its announcement of a potential HK listing),' said Kim Eng.

'Our fair price target of $7.50 is based on a multiple of 21x for Wilmar China and 19x for its non-China business.'