Singapore Shares May Find Traction On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, stumbling almost 120 points or 2.9 percent in that span. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 4,360-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is tempered by concerns over the growing economic conflict between the United States and China. The European and U.S. markets were mixed to lower and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index sank 35.32 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 4,354.52 after trading between 4,346.01 and 4,417.24.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 1.29 percent, while CapitaLand Investment lost 1.12 percent, City Developments shed 1.13 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 1.34 percent, DBS Group skidded 1.40 percent, Genting Singapore jumped 1.40 percent, Keppel DC REIT and Frasers Centrepoint Trust both improved 0.42 percent, Keppel Ltd retreated 1.64 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 0.47 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation perked 0.06 percent, SATS stumbled 2.02 percent, Seatrium Limited plummeted 4.50 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.57 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tanked 2.13 percent, SingTel fell 0.47 percent, United Overseas Bank dipped 0.40 percent, UOL Group slumped 1.47 percent, Wilmar International dropped 1.37 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.77 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 4.27 percent and CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, DFI Retail Group, Mapletree Logistics Trust and Hongkong Land were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday but ticked steadily higher before finally finishing mixed.

The Dow climbed 202.88 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 46.270.46, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.91 points or 0.76 percent to close at 22,521.70 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.41 points or 0.16 percent to end at 6,644.31.

The late-day pullback on Wall Street came as a post by President Donald Trump reinforced earlier concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Trump accused China of an "economically hostile act" by purposefully not buying U.S. soybeans and threatened to terminate business with China having to do with cooking oil and other elements of trade as retribution.

The selling pressure was partly offset by upbeat earnings news from big-name financial companies, including Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Crude oil prices pulled back sharply on Tuesday as renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China have heightened, while forecasts predicting low demand in the months ahead also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down $0.70 or 1.18 percent at $58.79 per barrel.