Singapore Bourse: Support Expected At 3,200 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up more than 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,200-point plateau and it's expected to move higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with bargain hunting offset by ongoing concerns over the outlook for the global economy. The European markets were sharply higher and the U.S. bourses were sharply lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the financial shares and industrial issues were mitigated by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index shed 18.39 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 3,205.69 after trading between 3,200.58 and 3,223.50. Volume was 1.41 billion shares worth 1.01 billion Singapore dollars. There were 283 decliners and 193 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT dipped 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment retreated 1.08 percent, City Developments climbed 1.10 percent, Comfort DelGro tanked 1.43 percent, DBS Group fell 0.37 percent, Genting Singapore skidded 0.65 percent, Hongkong Land improved 0.84 percent, Keppel Corp eased 0.13 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust dropped 0.54 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 0.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slumped 1.07 percent, SATS added 0.25 percent, SembCorp Industries weakened 0.90 percent, Singapore Exchange rose 0.11 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tumbled 1.32 percent, SingTel declined 1.14 percent, Thai Beverage plunged 1.56 percent, United Overseas Bank and Jardine Carriage both lost 0.48 percent, Wilmar International stumbled 0.74 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surrendered 1.30 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.16 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but tumbled in afternoon trade to finish deep in the red.

The Dow plummeted 337.98 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 31,318.44, while the NASDAQ tumbled 154.26 points or 1.31 percent to close at 11,630.86 and the S&P 500 sank 42.59 points or 1.07 percent to end at 3,924.26.

The volatility on Wall Street followed the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing U.S. employment increased roughly in line with estimates in August.

Amid recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the jobs data was described as a goldilocks report by some economists, coming in neither too hot nor too cold.

A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a sharp pullback in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in July.

Crude oil prices ticked higher Friday on rising prospects for a reduction in output from OPEC and allies. But prices were down for the week amid worries about outlook for energy demand due to concerns about slowing global growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September rose $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $86.87 a barrel; they were down 6.7 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide July numbers for retail sales later today; in June, sales were down 1.4 percent on month and up 14.8 percent on year.