Singapore Shares May Hand Back Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,225-point plateau although it may head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were mixed but little changed and the Asian markets are likely to open in similar fashion on Friday.

The STI finished slightly higher on Thursday following gains from the financials and industrials, while the property stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index perked 3.71 points or 0.12 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,226.59 after moving as low as 3,201.79.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.53 percent, while City Developments lost 0.30 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.79 percent, DBS Group rose 0.03 percent, Emperador declined 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore shed 0.56 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.11 percent, Keppel Corp advanced 0.59 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust slumped 1.19 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.24 percent, SATS added 0.39 percent, Seatrium Limited improved 0.71 percent, SembCorp Industries rallied 1.38 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering eased 0.26 percent, Thai Beverage surged 2.61 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.27 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.39 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 1.79 percent and Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Investment, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, SingTel and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened mixed and finished little changed in similar fashion.

The Dow rose 57.54 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 34,500.73, while the NASDAQ sank 123.64 points or 0.89 percent to end at 13,748.83 and the S&P 500 fell 14.34 points or 0.32 percent to close at 4,451.14.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department reported an unexpected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

The Fed is still widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting later this month, but CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates a 43.4 percent chance of another rate hike in November.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ was weighed by weakness from Apple (AAPL) after reports said China plans to expand a ban on the use of iPhones in sensitive departments to government-backed agencies and state companies.

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday, despite a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. Profit taking after recent strong gains was largely responsible as West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended lower by $0.67 or 0.9 percent at $86.87 a barrel.