Singapore Bourse Tipped To Extend Its Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two consecutive trading days, slipping almost 15 points or 0.4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,915-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with weakness expected from the technology and oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the industrials and mixed performances from the financial shares, properties and trusts.

For the day, the index shed 11.88 points or 0.30 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,915.87 after trading as high as 3,933.82.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 1.03 percent, while CapitaLand Investment rose 0.40 percent, City Developments lost 0.39 percent, Comfort DelGro improved 0.74 percent, DBS Group collected 0.43 percent, Genting Singapore plunged 2.67 percent, Keppel DC REIT and Venture Corporation both tanked 1.86 percent, Keppel Ltd eased 0.15 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust declined 1.47 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust spiked 1.64 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation shed 0.51 percent, SATS plummeted 3.76 percent, Seatrium Limited tumbled 1.72 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.34 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 0.78 percent, SingTel jumped 1.22 percent, UOL Group rallied 1.30 percent, Wilmar International retreated 1.57 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding crashed 9.70 percent and Hongkong Land, Yangzijiang Financial, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and finished in similar fashion.

The Dow gained 159.95 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 43,621.16, while the NASDAQ plummeted 260.54 points or 1.35 percent to close at 19,026.39 and the S&P 500 sank 28.00 points or 0.47 percent to end at 5,955.25.

Significant weakness among technology stocks weighed on Wall Street, as reflected the notable slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

Traders continued to express concerns about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade ahead of the release of AI darling Nvidia's (NVDA) fourth quarter results on Wednesday.

The selling pressure also spurred concerns about the outlook for the economy after a Conference Board report showing a significant deterioration by U.S. consumer confidence in February.

Oil futures settled sharply lower on Tuesday as concerns about demand and oversupply in the market weighed and pushed the commodity's prices to the lowest level in about 11 weeks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April settled lower by $1.77 or at $68.93 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide January figures for industrial production later today; in December, production was down 0.7 percent on month and up 10.6 percent on year.