Singapore Bourse May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, dropping more than 35 points or 1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,365-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and accompanying statement later today. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index fell 12.62 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 3,365.67 after trading between 3,352.08 and 3,389.77.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT retreated 1.03 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 0.47 percent, CapitaLand Investment declined 1.00 percent, City Developments advanced 0.73 percent, Comfort DelGro and Mapletree Industrial Trust both skidded 0.83 percent, DBS Group and DFI Retail Group both added 0.31 percent, Emperador plummeted 2.00 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.54 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.62 percent, Keppel Corp eased 0.13 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 0.55 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust plunged 1.74 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.46 percent, SATS dipped 0.33 percent, SembCorp Industries climbed 0.84 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.54 percent, SingTel slid 0.40 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.41 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 0.80 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surrendered 1.33 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 4.03 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened roughly flat on Tuesday but moved steadily higher as the day progressed.

The Dow climbed 368.95 points or 1.09 percent to finish at 34,086.04, while the NASDAQ jumped 190.74 points or 1.67 percent to close at 11,584.55 and the S&P 500 advanced 58.83 points or 1.46 percent to end at 4,076.60.

Recent data has reinforced the view that the central bank will likely slow the pace of its monetary policy tightening later today and raise interest rate by only 25 basis points.

The central bank's accompanying statement will be in focus for clues about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Labor Department said employment cost index wages in the U.S. increased at a slower pace in Q4, while the Institute for Supply Management said the Chicago PMI contracted for the fifth straight month.

Crude oil futures moved higher on Tuesday on expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at a slower pace, so the greenback might strengthen less than expected. West Texas International Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $0.97 or 1.3 percent at $78.87 a barrel.