Singapore Shares May Run Out Of Steam On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, gathering almost 70 points or 2.1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,280-point plateau although the rally may stall on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index advanced 31.18 points or 0.96 percent to finish at 3,280.69 after trading between 3,259.35 and 3,289.07.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT added 1.07 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 2.11 percent, CapitaLand Investment jumped1.90 percent, City Developments spiked 2.37 percent, DBS Group perked 0.44 percent, Emperador stumbled 0.97 percent, Hongkong Land rose 0.85 percent, Keppel Corp accelerated 2.34 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 2.68 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust climbed 1.32 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust strengthened 1.78 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 1.57 percent, SATS advanced 1.17 percent, Seatrium Limited was up 0.73 percent, SembCorp Industries and DFI Retail both increased 1.56 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 1.03 percent, SingTel improved 1.69 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 0.85 percent, Wilmar International gathered 0.80 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 2.78 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding dropped 0.59 percent and Comfort DelGro, Genting Singapore and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and worsened as the day progressed, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 288.86 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 34,618.86, while the NASDAQ plunged 217.76 points or 1.56 percent to close at 13,708.33 and the S&P 500 sank 54.78 points or 1.22 percent to end at 4,450.32.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ fell 0.4 percent and the S&P dipped 0.2 percent.

The pullback on Wall Street reflected profit taking ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week, but the latest batch of U.S. economic data reignited concerns about the possibility of future rate hikes.

The Labor Department said on Friday that import and export prices rose significantly more than expected, while the New York Fed noted a big jump in New York manufacturing activity this month - all of which bode ill for the outlook for interest rates.

Oil prices climbed higher on Friday, rising on optimism over the outlook for Chinese demand after reports showed Chinese refiners broke refining rate records in August. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.61 or 0.7 percent at $90.77 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release August figures for non-oil domestic exports later this morning. Exports are expected to rise 5.6 percent on month and sink 15.8 percent on year after falling 3.4 percent on month and 20.2 percent on year in July. The trade surplus is pegged at SGD5.787 billion, down from SGD6.490 billion in the previous month.