Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday halted the four-day winning streak in which it had gained more than 110 points or 3.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,410-point plateau, although it's likely to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks and a mixed picture from the industrial sector.

For the day, the index sank 29.07 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 3,410.81 after trading between 3,407.34 and 3,438.45.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.50 percent, while CapitaLand Investment plummeted 2.21 percent, City Developments fell 0.38 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.74 percent, DBS Group plunged 1.47 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.59 percent, Hongkong Land dropped 0.92 percent, Keppel DC REIT slumped 1.09 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.31 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation skidded 0.99 percent, SATS slid 0.34 percent, SembCorp Industries shed 0.63 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.16 percent, SingTel tanked 1.38 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.12 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tumbled 1.23 percent and Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Seatrium Limited and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened flat but generally moved higher throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow added 67.87 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 39,375.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 164.46 points or 0.90 percent to close at a record 18,352.76 and the S&P 500 gained 30.17 points or 0.54 percent to end at 5,567.19 - also a record.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.5 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.0 percent and the Dow advanced 0.7 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for June generated optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

While employment jumped by more than expected in June, the report also showed downward revisions to job growth in April and May as well as another unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate.

Treasury yields moved lower after the release of the report amid optimism the continued increase by the jobless rate will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates in the near future.

Oil futures slipped on Friday, but still posted their fourth straight weekly gain amid optimism about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down by $0.72 or 0.86 percent at $83.16 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 2 percent in the week.