Little Movement Seen For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after halting the three-day slide in which it had fallen almost 40 points or 0.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,255-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents later today to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index sank 16.24 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 4,256.52 after trading between 4,247.32 and 4,282.80.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT dropped 0.73 percent, while CapitaLand Investment plunged 3.55 percent, City Developments and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust both advanced 0.74 percent, Comfort DelGro tanked 3.16 percent, DBS Group tumbled 1.87 percent, DFI Retail Group strengthened 1.42 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.67 percent, Hongkong Land rallied 1.95 percent, Keppel DC REIT skidded 0.86 percent, Keppel Ltd perked 0.12 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.65 percent, Seatrium Limited declined 1.69 percent, SembCorp Industries retreated 1.72 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering plummeted 6.25 percent, SingTel rose 0.25 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 1.06 percent, United Overseas Bank gained 0.47 percent, UOL Group jumped 1.96 percent, Wilmar International slumped 1.02 percent, Yangzijiang Financial stumbled 1.92 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.35 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, SATS and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and spent most of the day in the red before finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 11.01 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 44,911.26, while the NASDAQ dipped 2.47 points or 0.01 percent to close at 21,710.67 and the S&P 500 rose 1.96 points or 0.03 percent to end at a record 6,468.54.

The early weakness on Wall Street followed the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by much more than expected in the month of July.

The hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data partly offset optimism about a September interest rate cut generated by the consumer price inflation data released earlier this week.

However, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently still indicating a 92.6 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point next month, which helped keep selling pressure relatively subdued.

Crude oil jumped on Thursday ahead of a crucial meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents later today in Alaska to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was up $1.32 or 2.11 percent at $63.97 per barrel.