Singapore Bourse Expected To Break Through Resistance At 4,400 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, adding almost 130 points or 3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 4,400-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the green again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, with gains from the technology stocks likely offset by weakness from the oil companies. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished sharply higher on Thursday with gains across the board, especially among the retail, industrial and financial sectors.

For the day, the index rallied 72.09 points or 1.67 percent to finish at 4,395.21 after trading between 4,333.41 and 4,404.25.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT gained 0.71 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust spiked 2.16 percent, CapitaLand Investment and United Overseas Bank both added 1.12 percent, City Developments increased 1.15 percent, Comfort DelGro climbed 1.39 percent, DBS Group soared 2.44 percent, DFI Retail Group skyrocketed 4.66 percent, Genting Singapore gathered 0.68 percent, Hongkong Land strengthened 1.55 percent, Keppel DC REIT was up 0.42 percent, Keppel Ltd rallied 2.01 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust rose 0.69 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust picked up 0.47 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust jumped 1.59 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation vaulted 1.51 percent, SATS and SingTel both expanded 1.45 percent, Seatrium Limited improved 1.24 percent, SembCorp Industries perked 0.50 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering surged 2.57 percent, UOL Group climbed 1.52 percent, Yangzijiang Financial collected 0.85 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding accelerated 2.13 percent and Thai Beverage and Wilmar International were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be cautiously optimistic as the major averages recovered from a midday slump on Thursday to finish with mild gains at fresh record highs.

The Dow added 78.62 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 46,519.72, while the NASDAQ gained 88.89 points or 0.39 percent to end at 22,844.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.15 points or 0.06 percent to close at 6,715.35.

The continued advance by the major averages reflected optimism about the artificial intelligence trade, which contributed to strength among tech stocks, especially Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which entered its second day with no signs of an imminent resolution.

Due to the shutdown, the releases of reports on weekly jobless claims and factory orders that were scheduled for this week have been indefinitely postponed.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday on anxiety about the long-term impact of the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which enters the second day today. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $1.23 or 1.99 percent at $60.55 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide August retail sales data later today; in July, sales were up 4.1 percent on month and 4.8 percent on year.