BUMPER profit numbers from Apple sent regional stock markets rolling yesterday, although the local bourse lost its enthusiasm half way through the day.

The Straits Times Index was up by 17 points at one stage, but traders took advantage of the higher prices to cash in.

The sell-off sent the STI easing back to close virtually unchanged, 0.61 points lower at 2,711.09, while other regional bourses were revelling in the action.

Tokyo's Nikkei-225 Index climbed 0.98 per cent and South Korea's Kospi Index was up 0.6 per cent - both boosted by gains from a mixture of technology stocks.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.83 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.52 per cent, as investors loaded up on financial giants such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, before the release of China's third-quarter GDP data tomorrow.

Singapore's inability to move higher in tandem with these bourses was no great surprise to traders here.

'The various trading themes revolving around the banks and property counters are looking jaded. Technology counters have also fallen off the radar screen and few traders now take notice of them,' said a dealer.

This explained why Apple's record quarterly sales of iPhones, iPods and Macs had little impact.

Indeed, Venture Corp - the biggest listed contract manufacturer here - was up only six cents at $9.50, on a volume of just 233,000 shares.

This was despite the heavy buying interest encountered on contract manufacturers listed elsewhere. Foxconn International, for example, rose 6.3 per cent in Hong Kong.

Even United States chipmaker Texas Instruments' better-than-expected profits failed to cheer wafer foundry Chartered Semi-conductor, which ended the day one cent higher at $2.63.

Instead, traders spent the day rotating their purchases from one penny stock to another, as they chased leads on corporate restructuring. This boosted overall market volume to 1.98 billion shares worth $1.29 billion.

Among the actively-traded penny stocks were Japanese bio-venture firm Transcu, which fell four cents to 15.5 cents on a staggering volume of 217.9 million shares, and water-treatment firm Memstar, up 1.5 cents to 11.5 cents with 100.2 million shares traded.

Natural Cool rose two cents to 27 cents on a volume of 516,000 shares following news of plans to list its unit on the Growth Enterprise Market on the Hong Kong Exchange.

And given the excitement with which traders are likely to greet each restructuring story, even investment banks were falling over themselves with reports advising companies on how they could capitalise on the economic recovery.

Citigroup, for example, noted that 'stronger companies are uniquely positioned to capitalise on expansion opportunities, while the challenge for weaker competitors will be to emerge from this recession without permanently damaging their competitive position'.

It then went on to outline a range of strategies the companies could adopt.

engyeow@sph.com.sg