Little Movement Seen For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday snapped the four-day winning streak in which it had risen more than 25 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 5,190-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower on concerns over the situation in the Middle East and on the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely in the red and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index shed 27.23 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 5,191.73 after trading between 5,155.95 and 5,214.11.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT rose 0.40 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust advanced 0.84 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.79 percent, City Developments skidded 1.01 percent, DBS Group dropped 0.97 percent, DFI Retail Group tumbled 2.38 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 2.47 percent, Keppel DC REIT shed 0.88 percent, Keppel Ltd retreated 1.51 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Seatrium Limited both slipped 0.51 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slid 0.32 percent, SATS dipped 0.22 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.77 percent, Singapore Airlines perked 0.13 percent, Singapore Exchange eased 0.04 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 1.05 percent, SingTel added 0.68 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 1.15 percent, United Overseas Bank was down 0.28 percent, UOL Group sank 0.93 percent, Wilmar International declined 1.35 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Frasers Centrepoint Trust and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday, peeked back above the unchanged line by midday but slumped again heading into the close.

The Dow shed 44.51 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 51,876.11, while the NASDAQ sank 60.99 points or 0.24 percent to close at 25,297.62 and the S&P 500 eased 3.47 points or 0.05 percent to end at 7,354.02.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came un the ambiguity surrounding the peace process in the U.S.-Iran conflict, while the earlier positive bounce was the result of sliding crude oil prices.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Friday as optimism increases on resumption of oil flow from the Arab region. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was down $2.60 or 3.62 percent at $69.32 per barrel.

In economic news, revised data released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. rebounded slightly more than estimated in June. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for June was upwardly revised to 49.5 from the previously reported 48.9.