Singapore Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in six straight sessions, advancing almost 120 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,570-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy decision later this week. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the trusts, properties and plantations, while the financials and industrials were mixed.

For the day, the index added 7.78 points or 0.22 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,570.43 after moving as low as 3,543.87.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust soared 1.88 percent, while CapitaLand Investment rallied 1.75 percent, City Developments spiked 1.87 percent, DBS Group perked 0.16 percent, Emperador stumbled 1.15 percent, Genting Singapore rose 0.60 percent, Hongkong Land strengthened 1.38 percent, Keppel DC REIT accelerated 1.82 percent, Keppel Ltd jumped 1.61 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust surged 2.07 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 1.19 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust shed 0.69 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.33 percent, SATS dropped 0.81 percent, Seatrium Limited climbed 1.21 percent, SembCorp Industries lost 0.58 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 1.07 percent, SingTel gained 0.61 percent, Wilmar International added 0.64 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.78 percent and Comfort DelGro, Thai Beverage, Yangzijiang Financial, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust and DFI Retail Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Monday, largely hugged the line throughout the session and ended little changed.

The Dow advanced 228.30 points or 0.55 percent to finish at a record 41,622.08, while the NASDAQ slumped 91.85 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,592.13 and the S&P 500 rose 7.07 points or 0.13 percent to end at 5,633.09.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as investors looked ahead to Wednesday's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement and stayed largely cautious and selective.

The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates, but there remains some debate about the size of the rate cut. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 65.0 percent chance of a half-point rate cut and a 35.0 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut.

On the economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report showing regional manufacturing grew for the first time in nearly a year in the month of September.

Oil prices climbed higher on Monday as concerns about tight supply outweighed demand outlook, while a weak dollar also contributed to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.44 at $70.09 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release August figures for non-oil exports, trade balance and Q2 numbers for unemployment later this morning. In July, exports were up 12.2 percent on month and 15.7 percent on year for a trade surplus of SGD6.486 billion. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 2.0 percent.