1 Tuesday was a scary day for the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a 442-point rally evaporated in the last hour of trading, even though China had pulled out the stops with an interest rate cut earlier. The Dow was set to open higher yesterday but uncertainty rules.

2 The world's largest offshore driller, Transocean, saw its shares plunge to a record low after it said that it will cancel dividend instalments and make various write-downs, indicating the severity of the oil price plunge for the market.

3 Offshore services player Ezion Holdings saw a substantial 216,800 shares sold for $124,660 last Friday, before the market fell.

They were funds and accounts managed by investment advisers owned by Franklin Resources.

4 Fragrance Group founder and owner Koh Wee Meng has picked up 100,000 shares of the company at 19.8 cents apiece. The counter ended 0.1 cent down at 19.8 cents.

5 The State Street Investor Confidence Index for August shows that global investors have turned more cautious in the wake of the devaluation of the yuan and the continued turmoil in commodities.