Singapore Stock Market May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in consecutive trading days, advancing almost 60 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Straits Time Index now sits just beneath the 3,900-point plateau and it figures to open under pressure on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. 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 again on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and industrials, while the properties came in mixed.

For the day, the index jumped 35.61 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 3,894.97 after trading between 3,876.19 and 3,908.02.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.94 percent, while CapitaLand Investment climbed 1.14 percent, City Developments eased 0.20 percent, Comfort DelGro strengthened 1.42 percent, DBS Group and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation both collected 1.51 percent, Genting Singapore spiked 2.68 percent, Hongkong Land accelerated 2.53 percent, Keppel DC REIT sank 0.91 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.59 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 0.80 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust shed 0.77 percent, SATS added 0.66 percent, Seatrium Limited soared 2.83 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.64 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering advanced 0.95 percent, SingTel fell 0.59 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 3.05 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.72 percent and Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Emperador and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow tumbled 260.32 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 41,581.31, while the NASDAQ plunged 304.55 points or 1.71 percent to close at 17,504.12 and the S&P 500 sank 60.46 points or 1.07 percent to end at 5,614.66.

Concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade policies continued to weigh along with worries about the economic outlook despite the release of some upbeat economic data.

The Federal Reserve said industrial production in the U.S. increased much more than expected in January. Also, the Commerce Department said new residential construction rebounded more than anticipated in February.

Traders were also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will look to the accompanying statement as well as officials' latest projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

Oil futures settled lower on Tuesday as concerns about supply disruptions eased, while worries about global growth due to the impact of U.S. trade tariffs weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended lower by $0.68 or 1 percent at $66.90 a barrel.