Singapore Shares May Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market headed south again on Tuesday, one day after snapping the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 65 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,580-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished slightly lower on Tuesday as losses from the financials were offset by gains from the trusts and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index dipped 4.33 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 3,580.96 after trading between 3,575.08 and 3,602.97.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.47 percent, while CapitaLand Investment retreated 1.28 percent, City Developments climbed 0.74 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 1.32 percent, DBS Group lost 0.42 percent, Emperador slumped 1.15 percent, Hongkong Land surged 2.72 percent, Keppel DC REIT and DFI Retail both gained 0.46 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.15 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 2.70 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust jumped 1.65 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust strengthened 1.37 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dropped 0.93 percent, SATS spiked 1.66 percent, Seatrium Limited advanced 0.56 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.43 percent, SingTel fell 0.31 percent, Thai Beverage plunged 1.87 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 2.99 percent, Yangzijiang Financial declined 1.25 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.63 percent and Genting Singapore was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 173.18 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 42,156.97, while the NASDAQ plummeted 278.81 points or 1.53 percent to close at 17,910.36 and the S&P sank 53.73 points or 0.93 percent to end at 5,708.75.

The weakness on Wall Street came on rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Israel. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in recent Israeli airstrikes.

A senior White House official said earlier in the day that the U.S. had indications Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, contributing to the early sell-off by stocks.

The news from the Middle East largely overshadowed separate report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in September and an unexpected increase by U.S. job openings in August.

Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid the possibility of tight supplies due to an escalation in tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November closed up $1.66 or nearly 2.5 percent at $69.83 a barrel.