Singapore Stock Market May Run Out Of Steam On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stick market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, collecting almost 20 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,190-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking anticipated. The European and U.S. markets finished under water and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index improved 22.71 points or 0.72 percent to finish at 3,189.01 after trading between 3,181.32 and 3,223.38.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT lost 0.37 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and United Overseas Bank both collected 0.50 percent, CapitaLand Investment and Mapletree Logistics Trust both gained 0.60 percent, City Developments spiked 1.62 percent, Comfort DelGro plummeted 3.70 percent, DBS Group rallied 1.50 percent, Emperador dropped 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore tumbled 2.00 percent, Keppel Corp jumped 1.60 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust climbed 1.21 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Thai Beverage both sank 0.89 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation advanced 0.82 percent, SATS added 0.80 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 3.08 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.27 percent, SingTel shed 0.80 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 2.46 percent and Hongkong Land and Yangzijiang Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Monday, but a late slump sent them all into the red the close.

The Dow tumbled 199.90 points or 0.59 percent to finish at 33,562.86, while the NASDAQ slipped 11.34 points or 0.09 percent to close at 13,229.43 and the S&P 500 fell 8.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 4,273.79.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as some traders looked to take a break after the passage of legislation raising the U.S. debt ceiling and the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report.

Trading activity may remain somewhat subdued this week as traders look ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting; the Fed is widely expected to pause its recent series of interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management said service sector activity in the U.S. saw only modest growth last month, with the index of activity in the sector falling by more than expected. Also, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured goods increased less than expected in April.

Crude oil prices settled higher Monday after Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, pledged to cut its production by another 1 million barrels per day in July. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $0.41 or 0.6 percent at $72.15 a barrel, off the intra-day high of $75.06.