Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting almost 25 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 4,950-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on surging oil prices and weakness among technology stocks. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets also figure to open to the downside.

The STI finished barely higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index perked 3.23 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 4,946.00 after trading between 4,915.15 and 4,953.04.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT contracted 0.81 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust skidded 0.87 percent, CapitaLand Investment and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation both sank 0.76 percent, City Developments rose 0.25 percent, DBS Group increased 0.56 percent, DFI Retail Group shed 0.72 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.47 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.48 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.44 percent, Keppel Ltd tumbled 1.19 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust dropped 0.79 percent, SATS expanded 0.92 percent, Seatrium Limited surged 5.38 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.65 percent, Singapore Airlines improved 0.64 percent, Singapore Exchange climbed 0.67 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 0.09 percent, SingTel lost 0.63 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 1.18 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.32 percent, UOL Group gathered 0.20 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.27 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 1.02 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but trended higher as the session progressed, with the Dow finally peaking into positive territory by the day's end.

The Dow rose 56.09 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,760.56, while the NASDAQ sank 185.92 points or 0.71 percent to end at 26,088.20 and the S&P 500 dipped 11.88 points or 0.16 percent to close at 7,400.96.

An extended surge by the price of crude oil contributed to the early sell-off on Wall Street, with U.S. crude oil futures soaring by more than 4 percent and jumping back above $100 a barrel.

The continued increase by the price of crude oil comes as the U.S. and Iran struggle to reach an agreement to end the war and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The weakness on Wall Street also came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing the fastest annual rate of consumer price growth since May 2023 - making any rate cuts in the near future extremely unlikely.