Singapore Bourse May Reclaim 3,900-Point Level

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had risen just 6 points or 0.15 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just shy of the 3,900-point plateau and it's expected to open higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on easing tariff and trade war concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were sharply higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index gained 20.49 points or 0.53 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,896.09 after trading as low as 3,871.81.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT perked 0.38 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 0.97 percent, CapitaLand Investment improved 0.40 percent, City Developments gathered 0.42 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.68 percent, DBS Group collected 0.56 percent, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust lost 0.63 percent, Hongkong Land sank 0.57 percent, Keppel DC REIT tumbled 1.36 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.59 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation added 0.87 percent, SATS soared 1.97 percent, Seatrium Limited rose 0.49 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.90 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering surged 2.51 percent, SingTel was up 0.26 percent, Venture Corporation fell 0.27 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 1.47 percent and Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, DFI Retail Group and UOL Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened in the green and continued to accelerate as the day progressed.

The Dow spiked 740.58 points or 1.78 percent to finish at 42,343.65, while the NASDAQ surged 461.96 points or 2.47 percent to close at 19,199.16 and the S&P 500 jumped 118.72 points or 2.05 percent to end at 5,921.54.

The rally on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump announced he is delaying a threatened 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union.

The move by Trump came as analysts previously suggested the threatened tariff on the EU was just a negotiating tactic and not where the eventual rate will wind up.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to a report released by the Conference Board showing a substantial improvement by U.S. consumer confidence in the month of May.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday on continuing concerns that OPEC may boost output at its meeting later today. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery dropped 0.65 or 1 percent to $64.09 per barrel.