Singapore Shares May Take Further Damage On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had added more than 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,875-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower, with energy stocks likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were mostly lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished slightly lower on Friday following weakness from the plantations and mixed performances from the financials, properties and industrials.

For the day, the index slipped 5.08 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 3,877.50 after trading between 3,863.94 and 3,880.90.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust improved 1.03 percent, while City Developments gained 0.40 percent, Comfort DelGro rallied 1.47 percent, DBS Group sank 0.49 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.63 percent, Hongkong Land surged 4.07 percent, Keppel DC REIT tumbled 2.78 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.29 percent, SATS declined 1.19 percent, Seatrium Limited climbed 1.18 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 1.12 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 0.60 percent, SingTel retreated 1.47 percent, Wilmar International slumped 0.61 percent, Yangzijiang Financial spiked 1.92 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 2.61 percent and Keppel Ltd, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Thai Beverage, Emperador and CapitaLand Investment were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened higher on Friday but couldn't hold the gains, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 165.32 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 44,546.08, while the NASDAQ added 81.17 points or 0.41 percent to close at 20,026.77 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.44 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,114.63.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.6 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.5 percent and the Dow advanced 0.6 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Thursday's rally, which saw the S&P 500 jump near its record highs despite data showing a bigger than expected increase by producer prices.

Traders were also digesting a mixed batch of U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing retail sales slumped much more than expected in January. A separate report from the Federal Reserve showed industrial production rose by more than expected last month.

Oil prices drifted lower on Friday as supply concerns eased amid hopes of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine and possibility of removal of sanctions on Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.55 or 0.77 percent at $70.74 a barrel. WTI futures gained 1.0 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will see January data for non-oil domestic exports later this morning, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.3 percent on month and 2.5 percent on year. That follows the 1.7 percent monthly increase and the 9.0 percent yearly gain in December, when the trade surplus was SGD3.850 billion.