Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering more than 70 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,340-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on profit taking and reduced optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are expected to trend in the latter direction.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials came in mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 32.46 points or 0.98 percent to finish at 3,337.42 after trading between 3,317.51 and 3,339.24.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT gathered 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust advanced 0.99 percent, CapitaLand Investment accelerated 1.48 percent, City Developments surged 2.51 percent, DBS Group soared 1.81 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1.07 percent, Hongkong Land perked 0.28 percent, Keppel Corp lost 0.43 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust gained 0.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation spiked 1.79 percent, SATS increased 0.73 percent, Seatrium Limited added 0.69 percent, SembCorp Industries strengthened 1.28 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering improved 0.81 percent, SingTel rose 0.38 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 1.71 percent, Wilmar International jumped 1.59 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.66 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Yangzijiang Financial, Comfort DelGro, Emperador and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but faded late and ended modestly in the red.

The Dow dropped 237.40 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 35,282.72, while the NASDAQ slumped 77.17 points or 0.55 percent to close at 14,050.11 and the S&P 500 fell 29.34 points or 0.64 percent to end at 4,537.41.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to upbeat earnings news from the likes of Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) and fast food giant McDonald's (MCD).

Stocks also initially benefitted from the release of a batch of upbeat U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department showing an unexpected acceleration in the pace of economic growth in the second quarter.

However, the upbeat data subsequently raised some concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Wednesday's monetary policy decision by the Federal Reserve.

Oil prices climbed higher on Thursday thanks to prospects of tighter supply in the market due to production cuts by OPEC and allies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September jumped $1.31 or 1.7 percent at $80.09 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see Q2 numbers for unemployment later today; in the three months prior, the jobless rate was 1.8 percent.