Singapore Stock Market May Test Resistance At 3,300 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,310-point plateau and it may see mild selling pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid mixed economic and earnings data. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and mixed performances from the property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index slipped 9.70 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 3,309.56 after trading between 3,298.73 and 3,323.27.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT dropped 0.69 percent, while Comfort DelGro tumbled 1.64 percent, DBS Group fell 0.30 percent, Emperador retreated 0.97 percent, Genting Singapore slumped 0.85 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.38 percent, Keppel Corp added 0.33 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust lost 0.54 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust shed 0.56 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation skidded 0.78 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.39 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 0.78 percent, United Overseas Bank sank 0.67 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.24 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 2.70 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Investment, City Developments, Singapore Technologies Engineering, SingTel, Mapletree Industrial Trust, SATS, Keppel DC REIT and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street provides little guidance as the major averages opened mixed and hugged the unchanged line throughout the session, finally ending on opposite sides and barely moved.

The Dow shed 10.55 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 33,976.63, while the NASDAQ dipped 4.31 points or 0.04 percent to close at 12,153.41 and the S&P 600 rose 3.55 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,154.87.

Traders were unhappy with remarks from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who said that he favored continued interest-rate hikes to counter persistent inflation and added that recession fears are overblown.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. housing starts slid by 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.420 million in March from a revised rate of 1.432 million in February.

In earnings news, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and Netflix all beat the street, while Goldman Sachs and United Airlines missed expectations.

Oil futures settled slightly higher Tuesday as traders assessed Chinese GDP numbers and data showing a drop in eurozone and German investor sentiment. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May rose $0.03 at $80.86 a barrel.