Singapore Shares Likely To Open To The Upside On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the three-day losing streak in which it had slipped almost 40 points or 1.1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,830-point plateau and it may open in the green again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests support ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index rose 15.05 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 3,830.42 after trading between 3,821.20 and 3,839.40.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust spiked 1.55 percent, while CapitaLand Investment and Mapletree Logistics Trust both climbed 0.82 percent, City Developments rose 0.40 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 1.43 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 0.68 percent, Hongkong Land soared 1.62 percent, Keppel DC REIT slumped 0.91 percent, Keppel Ltd surged 1.65 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust jumped 0.95 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust strengthened 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.58 percent, SATS and Wilmar International both gathered 0.31 percent, Seatrium Limited rallied 1.40 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.56 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 0.21 percent, SingTel added 0.62 percent, Thai Beverage plummeted 1.89 percent, Yangzijiang Financial accelerated 1.06 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding stumbled 1.63 percent and DBS Group and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher, although the Dow quickly turned lower and spent the rest of the day in the red.

The Dow stumbled 125.65 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 44,747.63, while the NASDAQ advanced 99.66 points or 0.51 percent to close at 19.971.99 and the S&P 500 added 22.09 points or 0.36 percent to end at 6,083.57.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Traders will be watching the numbers, which could affect the Federal Reserve's outlook for interest rates.

A day ahead of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week.

Crude oil saw further downside on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his pledge to increase U.S. oil production in an effort to lower prices. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery slid $0.42 or 0.6 percent to a one-month low of $70.61 a barrel.