Singapore Shares May Extend Friday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,320-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of economic and earnings news coming the week. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the industrials and properties were offset by weakness from the financials.

For the day, the index rose 8.41 points or 0.25 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,321.82 after moving as low as 3,300.86.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment improved 0.79 percent, while City Developments and Singapore Technologies Engineering both gained 0.27 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.83 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.12 percent, Genting Singapore spiked 1.75 percent, Keppel Corp surged 3.03 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust shed 0.56 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 1.14 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.16 percent, SATS sank 0.74 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.64 percent, SingTel added 0.39 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.10 percent, Wilmar International rallied 0.99 percent, Yangzijiang Financial soared 2.67 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Hongkong Land, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Ascendas REIT, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Emperador, Keppel DC REIT, Frasers Logistics and Jardine Cycle were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line on Friday before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow added 22.36 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 33,808.96, while the NASDAQ perked 12.86 points or 0.11 percent to close at 12,072.46 and the S&P 500 rose 3.73 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,133.52.

For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the NASDAQ dipped by 0.4 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of several key economic reports and corporate earnings numbers due be released this week.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Friday, buoyed by fairly strong data on private sector activity in the U.K. and eurozone. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.50 or 0.7 percent at $77.87 a barrel. WTI lost 5.5 percent last week.