Singapore Stock Market May Extend Wednesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 45 points or 1.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,215-point plateau and it may spin its wheels again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is increasingly negative as the debt ceiling situation in the United States continues to drag on. The European and U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The STI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index fell 3.87 points or 0.12 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,214.21 after moving as low as 3,204.74.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.50 percent, while CapitaLand Investment rallied 1.74 percent, City Developments shed 0.58 percent, Comfort DelGro jumped 1.79 percent, DBS Group was down 0.29 percent, Genting Singapore tumbled 1.96 percent, Keppel Corp retreated 1.08 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 0.59 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.60 percent Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 0.49 percent, SATS declined 1.40 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.41 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.27 percent, SingTel climbed 0.79 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 0.86 percent, United Overseas Bank fell 0.43 percent, Wilmar International advanced 0.76 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding skidded 0.79 percent and Hongkong Land, Yangzijiang Financial, Ascendas REIT, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests continued consolidation as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow tumbled 255.59 points or 0.77 percent to finish at 32,799.92. while the NASDAQ sank 76.08 points or 0.61 percent to close at 12,484.16 and the S&P 500 dropped 30.34 points or 0.73 percent to end at 4,115.24.

Lingering concerns about lawmakers' ability to reach an agreement on increasing the U.S. debt ceiling continued to weigh on Wall Street.

While negotiations have continued this week, traders remain worried about reports suggesting a lack of progress towards a deal.

Traders were also digesting the minutes of the Federal Reserve's May monetary policy meeting, which indicated uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices moved higher Wednesday, rising for the third consecutive session on concerns over tightening supply after data showed a larger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July jumped $1.43 or 2 percent at $74.34 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q1 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.7 percent on quarter and a gain of 0.1 percent on year. That follows the 2.7 percent quarterly contraction and the 0.1 percent yearly gain in the previous three months.