Singapore Shares May Halt Slide On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping more than 50 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,130-point plateau although it may see a mild recovery on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is rudderless amidst a lack of catalysts. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The STI finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the telecoms, financials, properties and industrials.

For the day, the index stumbled 44.09 points or 1.39 percent to finish at 3,129.72 after trading between 3,121.51 and 3,161.11.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT shed 1.09 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust was down 0.54 percent, CapitaLand Investment dropped 1.30 percent, City Developments and SATS both slid 0.78 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 2.24 percent, DBS Group slumped 1.42 percent, Emperador lost 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore retreated 1.71 percent, Hongkong Land eased 0.31 percent, Keppel Corp declined 2.02 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust dipped 0.75 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust skidded 1.36 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 1.28 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slipped 0.68 percent, Seatrium Limited plunged 3.54 percent, SembCorp Industries tanked 2.87 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering stumbled 2.07 percent, SingTel plummeted 4.84 percent, Thai Beverage fell 0.93 percent, Wilmar International weakened 1.37 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surrendered 2.60 percent and Yangzijiang Financial was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher, quickly dipped into the red and finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 40.33 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 34,112.27, while the NASDAQ rose 10.56 points or 0.08 percent to close at 13,650.41 and the S&P 500 perked 4.40 points or 0.10 percent to end at 4,382.78.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves following recent strength in the markets.

Amid the focus on the outlook for interest rates, traders kept a close eye on remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell - but he refrained from specifically addressing monetary policy, focusing instead on praise for the work done by the Fed's Division of Research and Statistics.

Traders also shrugged off results of the Treasury Department's auction of $40 billion worth of ten-year notes, which attracted average demand.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December lost $2.04 or about 2.6 percent at $75.33 a barrel.