Singapore Bourse May Reclaim 3,100-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked lower in consecutive trading days, slumping more than 20 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,095-point plateau, although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on positive momentum regarding the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and industrial issues, while the property sector was mixed.

For the day, the index shed 16.94 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 3,094.81 after trading between 3,091.99 and 3,111.82.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT rose 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Investment shed 0.64 percent, Comfort DelGro added 0.75 percent, DBS Group fell 0.44 percent, Emperador declined 0.96 percent, Genting Singapore stumbled 1.08 percent, Keppel Corp and Mapletree Logistics Trust both lost 062 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust plummeted 2.13 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.43 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 0.86 percent, SATS tumbled 1.09 percent, Seatrium Limited skidded 0.92 percent, SembCorp Industries slid 0.39 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.06 percent, SingTel dropped 0.88 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 0.93 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plunged 1.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 1.34 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, City Developments, Hongkong Land and Wilmar International were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street varies widely as the Dow opened higher on Friday and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P bounced back and forth across the line all day and finished barely higher.

The Dow gained 117.15 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 35,390.15, while the NASDAQ dipped 15.05 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,250.85 and the S&P 500 perked 2.72 points or 0.06 percent to end at 4,559.34.

For the holiday-interrupted week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ climbed 0.9 percent.

The choppy action on Wall Street came as many traders remained away from their desks following Thursday's holiday, with the markets closing three hours earlier than usual.

A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of this week's reports on new home sales, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing activity.

Oil prices fell sharply Friday, with traders waiting on a crucial OPEC meeting this week as oil producers struggling to come to a consensus on production levels. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.56 or 2 percent at $75.54 a barrel.