Singapore Shares Tipped To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 25 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,090-point plateau and it's expected to bounce higher again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on optimism for the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials and REITs were mixed.

For the day, the index sank 20.53 points or 0.66 percent to finish at 3,090.20 after trading between 3,078.82 and 3,108.04.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT slid 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Singapore Technologies Engineering both lost 0.53 percent, CapitaLand Investment plunged 3.23 percent, City Developments dropped 0.64 percent, Comfort DelGro rallied 2.22 percent, DBS Group skidded 0.66 percent, Emperador tumbled 0.96 percent, Genting Singapore fell 0.51 percent, Hongkong Land and Mapletree Logistics Trust both sank 0.61 percent, Keppel Corp shed 0.59 percent, Keppel DC REIT jumped 1.02 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust rose 0.43 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation declined 0.87 percent, Seatrium Limited retreated 0.92 percent, SembCorp Industries slumped 0.81 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 3.31 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tanked 1.59 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding gained 0.68 percent and SATS, SingTel, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and DFI Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is modestly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but all turned higher to finish with mild gains.

The Dow jumped 157.06 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 36,404.93, while the NASDAQ added 28.51 points or 0.20 percent to close at 14,432.49 and the S&P 500 rose 18.07 points or 0.39 percent to end at 4,622.44.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday, although stocks continued to benefit from the optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Optimism the Fed could pivot to cutting interest rates as soon as March 2024 has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, although last Friday's strong than expected jobs data has led to speculation the Fed could wait until May to begin lowering rates.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday due to continued uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended with a small gain of $0.09 or 0.13 percent at $71.32 a barrel.