Continued Consolidation Called For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the seven-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 170 points or 5.7 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,100-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished sharply lower on Thursday following profit taking among the trusts, properties, financials and industrials

For the day, the index slumped 38.62 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 3,102.51 after trading between 3,091.18 and 3,126.09. Volume was 1.3 billion shares worth 1.02 billion Singapore dollars. There were 313 decliners and 190 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT tumbled 4.48 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tanked 4.64 percent, CapitaLand Investment skidded 1.30 percent, City Developments slumped 1.66 percent, DBS Group weakened 1.55 percent, Emperador sank 1.04 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 1.23 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.69 percent, Keppel Corp lost 0.85 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust plummeted 5.99 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust surrendered 3.59 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust plunged 5.10 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation shed 0.91 percent, SATS slid 0.37 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.67 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was down 0.30 percent, SingTel stumbled 1.18 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.72 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.18 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.56 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 2.42 percent and Comfort DelGro and Wilmar International were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 146.51 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 32,001.25, while the NASDAQ tumbled 181.86 points or 1.73 percent to close at 10,342.94 and the S&P 500 lost 39.80 points or 1.06 percent to end at 3,719.89.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders continued to digest the fourth straight 75-basis point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, and comments from the central bank Chair Jerome Powell that signaled more interest rate hikes in the coming months.

Investors also digested the latest batch of economic data and looked ahead to the crucial non-farm payroll data, due on Friday.

The Commerce Department said the U.S. trade gap widened to a three-month high in September, while the Labor Department said jobless claims declined last week and the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose more than expected.

Crude oil prices settled sharply lower Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand. The dollar's sharp uptick following hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve also weighed on crude oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December sank $1.83 or 2 percent at $88.17 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide September figures for retail sales later today; in August, sales were down 1.3 percent on month and up 13.0 percent on year.