Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked higher in two straight sessions, collecting almost 30 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,200-point plateau although it's expected to run out of steam on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uncertain amidst debt ceiling negotiations in the United States. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and retail stocks, while the industrials and properties were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 20.04 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 3,202.59 after trading between 3,184.91 and 3,207.24.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 0.50 percent, while CapitaLand Investment sank 0.57 percent, City Developments dipped 0.29 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.89 percent, DBS Group soared 1.28 percent, DFI Retail skyrocketed 10.07 percent, Emperador jumped 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore surged 1.98 percent, Hongkong Land slumped 0.91 percent, Keppel Corp fell 0.46 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 0.91 percent, SATS spiked 1.12 percent, SembCorp Industries rose 0.41 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering added 0.53 percent, SingTel gathered 0.39 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.69 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.69 percent, Wilmar International perked 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding retreated 1.55 percent and Yangzijiang Financial, Ascendas REIT, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slipped into the shortly thereafter and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 109.27 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 33,426.63, while the NASDAQ sank 30.90 points or 0.24 percent to close at 12,657.90 and the S&P 500 fell 6.07 points or 0.14 percent to end at 4,191.98. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.0 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7 percent and the Dow rose 0.4 percent.

The downturn on Wall Street came as Republican negotiators walked out of a meeting over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, offsetting recent optimism about an impending deal.

Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, as traders still expect lawmakers to eventually reach a debt ceiling deal.

Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reinforcing expectations the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged next month also helped limit the downside.

Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower on Friday, weighed down by the ambiguity regarding the U.S. debt ceiling talks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June slipped $0.31 or 0.4 percent to $71.55 a barrel; WTI crude futures gained 2.2 percent in the week.