Singapore Stock Market May Open Lower On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in six straight sessions, slipping more than 60 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,210-point plateau and it's got a soft lead again for Monday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on concerns over recession and the debt ceiling. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the financials and industrials were offset by support from the property sector.

For the day, the index lost 21.00 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 3,208.55 after trading between 3,196.09 and 3,223.87.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT lost 0.69 percent, while CapitaLand Investment plunged 3.21 percent, City Developments gained 0.57 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.84 percent, DBS Group declined 1.41 percent, Emperador skidded 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 0.89 percent, Hongkong Land added 0.68 percent, Keppel Corp slid 0.47 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust retreated 1.17 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust fell 0.57 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was down 0.41 percent, SATS slumped 1.12 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.53 percent, SingTel eased 0.39 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.67 percent, United Overseas Bank shed 0.75 percent, Wilmar International advanced 0.76 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tanked 2.82 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.28 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Keppel DC REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly turned lower, spending the rest of the session in the red and finishing with mild losses.

The Dow dipped 8.88 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,300.62, while the NASDAQ sank 43.76 points or 0.35 percent to end at 12,284.74 and the S&P 500 eased 6.54 points or 0.16 percent to close at 4,124.08.

For the week, the Dow slumped 1.1 percent, the S&P fell 0.3 percent and but the NASDAQ rose 0.4 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street followed the release of a report from the University of Michigan showing U.S. consumer sentiment deteriorated much more than anticipated in May.

Worries about the debt ceiling crisis also continued to hang over the markets, with the postponement of a meeting between President Joe Biden and top lawmakers adding to jitters about a potential default.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on the dollar's strength and worries about the outlook for energy demand. Fears of the U.S. falling into a recession and the impasse in debt ceiling talks boosted dollar's safe-haven appeal and hurt oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures fell $0.83 or 1.2 percent at $70.04 a barrel.