Singapore Shares May Head South Again On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 150 points or 3.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 4,860-point plateau although it's likely to open under water on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests renewed pressure thanks to a rebound by crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index gained 21.13 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 4,862.43 after trading between 4,829.57 and 4,882.10.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.43 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.37 percent, City Developments spiked 2.20 percent, DBS Group gained 0.37 percent, DFI Retail Group surged 4.29 percent, Hongkong Land soared 2.44 percent, Keppel DC REIT dropped 0.89 percent, Keppel Ltd rallied 0.99 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust sank 0.51 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.76 percent, SATS increased 0.56 percent, Seatrium Limited added 0.43 percent, SembCorp Industries perked 0.16 percent, Singapore Airlines rose 0.31 percent, Singapore Exchange improved 0.63 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gathered 0.28 percent, SingTel fell 0.20 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 1.16 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.05 percent, UOL Group jumped 1.57 percent, Wilmar International tumbled 1.89 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and bounced back and forth cross the unchanged line before settling slightly in the red.

The Dow shed 84.41 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 46,124.06, while the NASDAQ dropped 184.87 points or 0.84 percent to end at 21,761.89 and the S&P 500 sank 24.63 points or 0.37 percent to close at 6,556.37.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid a rebound by the price of crude oil, with international benchmark Brent crude futures surging back above $100 a barrel.

Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday as market participants found U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of U.S.-Iran peace talks to be unfounded. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up $3.90 or 4.43 percent at $92.03 per barrel.

Iran's foreign ministry said Trump's remarks were "part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time" for military plans.