Losing Streak May Continue For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, giving away more than 85 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Straits Tines Index now rests just above the 3,800-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative after strong U.S. employment data weighed heavily on the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets ended firmly in the red and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index stumbled 61.04 points or 1.58 percent to finish at 3,801.56 after trading between 3,785.68 and 3,843.35.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust skidded 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment sank 0.40 percent, City Developments dipped 0.20 percent, Comfort DelGro added 0.69 percent, DBS Group stumbled 1.93 percent, Genting Singapore declined 1.32 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.23 percent, Keppel Ltd tanked 2.59 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust retreated 1.64 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust dropped 0.44 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation surrendered 2.29 percent, Seatrium Limited and Thai Beverage both tumbled 0.90 percent, SembCorp Industries plunge 3.53 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 0.85 percent, SingTel lost 0.32 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 1.22 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.54 percent and Keppel DC REIT, Mapletree Logistics Trust, SATS, UOL Group, DFI Retail and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is bleak as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow plummeted 696.75 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 41,938.45, while the NASDAQ tumbled 317.27 points or 1.63 percent to close at 19,161.63 and the S&P 500 dropped 91.21 points or 1.54 percent to end at 5,827.04.

The weakness on Wall Street was the result of buoyant non-farm payroll data, which raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will likely hold interest rates at current levels or slow down the pace of reductions.

While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, the data is also likely to give the Federal Reserve confidence in its plan to gradually lower interest rates over the coming year.

Oil prices rose sharply on Friday, riding on the Biden Administration's decision to impose additional sanctions on Russia's oil exports. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February closed higher by $2.65 or 3.6 percent at $76.57 a barrel, the highest settlement in three months.