Renewed Consolidation Called For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday halted the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 80 points or 2.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,310-point plateau although it figures to hand back those gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, properties and industrials.

For the day, the index advanced 30.41 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 3,311.23 after trading between 3,286.26 and 3,325.22.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT added 0.73 percent, while CapitaLand Investment increased 0.53 percent, City Developments eased 0.13 percent, Comfort DelGro strengthened 0.85 percent, DBS Group collected 0.29 percent, Emperador dropped 0.98 percent, Hongkong Land gathered 0.42 percent, Keppel Corp gained 0.71 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust improved 0.60 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust soared 2.63 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rallied 1,22 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation spiked 1.80 percent, SembCorp Industries and SingTel both climbed 0.82 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering jumped 1.39 percent, Thai Beverage plunged 3.03 percent, United Overseas Bank surged 2.74 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.78 percent and Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial, Genting Singapore, SATS and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday, pared the losses midday but then slumped again to finish near session lows.

The Dow plunged 431.20 points or 1.26 percent to finish at 33,696.85, while the NASDAQ tumbled 214.76 points or 1.78 percent to close at 11,855.83 and the S&P 500 dropped 57.19 points or 1.38 percent to end at 4,090.41.

The steep drop on Wall Street followed the Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in producer prices, leading to renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

A separate Labor Department report showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged slightly lower last week.

Oil futures settled lower on Thursday, extending losses to a third straight session on recent data showing a surge in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $0.10 at $78.49 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide January figures for non-oil domestic exports later today, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 1.2 percent on month and 22.0 percent on year. That follows the 3.3 percent fall and the 20.6 percent slide in December - when the trade surplus was SGD5.367 billion.