Losses May Accelerate For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 40 points or 1.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,275-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is decidedly soft on concerns about the economy and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets are tipped to follow that lead.

The STI finished slightly lower on Thursday following losses from the financials, support from the properties and mixed performances from the industrials and trusts.

For the day, the index dipped 4.82 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 3,273.75 after trading between 3,256.79 and 3,287.53.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust skidded 0.49 percent, while CapitaLand Investment jumped 1.36 percent, City Developments rose 0.12 percent, DBS Group shed 0.35 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1.09 percent, Hongkong Land added 0.43 percent, Keppel Corp sank 0.40 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 0.59 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 0.89 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rallied 1.23 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation weakened 0.56 percent, SATS stumbled 0.69 percent, SembCorp Industries strengthened 1.22 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering lost 0.29 percent, SingTel declined 0.77 percent, Thai Beverage retreated 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank fell 0.13 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.48 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tumbled 1.45 percent and Yangzijiang Financial, Ascendas REIT, Comfort DelGro, Emperador, DFI Retail and Keppel DC REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow plummeted 773.26 points or 2.28 percent to finish at 33,193.09, while the NASDAQ plunged 356.54 points or 3.19 percent to close at 10.814.35 and the S&P 500 tumbled 99.45 points or 2.49 percent to end at 3,895.87.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continued to weigh on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday was more hawkish than expected.

A batch of disappointing U.S. economic data also added to concerns the Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes will push the economy into a recession.

Retail sales dropped more than expected last month, as did industrial production. Also, the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserves showed contractions in regional manufacturing activity in the month of December.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday as concerns about easing supply following a partial restart of the Keystone Pipeline. The dollar's rise on hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve weighed as well on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.17 or 1.5 percent at $76.11 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release November numbers for non-oil domestic exports later this morning. Exports are expected to slip 3.0 percent on month and 7.4 percent on year after falling 3.7 percent on month and 5.6 percent on year in October. The trade surplus in October was SGD4.071 billion.