Singapore Bourse May Take Further Damage On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, sliding more than 25 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,360-point plateau and it's likely to open in the red again on Friday.

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

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index dropped 29.04 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 3,359.48 after trading between 3,355.09 and 3,382.46.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation both slid 0.38 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tanked 1.48 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.51 percent, City Developments shed 0.73 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.84 percent, DBS Group sank 0.75 percent, Emperador and SATS both skidded 0.98 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.41 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust weakened 1.12 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust declined 1.27 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust slumped 1.17 percent, SembCorp Industries plunged 1.59 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was down 0.27 percent, SingTel dropped 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.45 percent, United Overseas Bank tumbled 1.43 percent, Wilmar International retreated 1.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surrendered 1.37 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.88 percent and Genting Singapore, Keppel Corp and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages were unable to hold on to early gains on Thursday, sinking into the red by midday and ending at daily lows.

The Dow tumbled 249.13 points or 0.73 percent to finish at 33,699.88, while the NASDAQ slumped 120.94 points or 1.02 percent to close at 11,789.58 and the S&P 500 sank 36.36 points or 0.88 percent to end at 4,081.50.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing interest rate concerns following hawkish comments by some Federal Reserve officials.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected last week.

Crude oil futures ended lower Thursday as rising crude inventories in the U.S. and prospects of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $78.06 a barrel.