Losing Streak May Continue For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, sliding almost 40 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,240-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates and a global recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

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

For the day, the index dropped 32.94 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 3,240.81 after trading between 3,237.79 and 3,272.12.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT tanked 2.52 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.98 percent, CapitaLand Investment plunged 3.21 percent, City Developments skidded 1.09 percent, Comfort DelGro shed 0.81 percent, DBS Group eased 0.35 percent, Emperador dropped 1.01 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1,08 percent, Hongkong Land plummeted 3.44 percent, Keppel Corp declined 1.61 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust fell 0.60 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust surrendered 2.20 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tumbled 2.44 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slumped 1.38 percent, SATS retreated 1.39 percent, SingTel weakened 1.17 percent, United Overseas Bank slid 0.49 percent, Wilmar International lost 0.72 percent, Yangzijiang Financial and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding both jumped 1.47 percent and SembCorp Industries, Singapore Technologies Engineering and Thai Beverage were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 281.74 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 32,920.46, while the NASDAQ dropped 105.09 points or 0.97 percent to close at 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 sank 43.39 points or 1.11 percent to end at 3,852.36.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent, the S&P declined 2.1 percent and the Dow retreated 1.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Fed's hawkish tone in its latest monetary policy announcement has added to worries about the central bank's aggressive rate hikes tipping the economy into a recession.

While inflation has recently shown signs of slowing, the Fed signaled it plans to continue raising interest rates next year.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.4 percent in the week.