Singapore Stock Market Tipped To Open Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after ending the four-day slide in which it had slumped more than 50 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,260-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on sliding oil prices and renewed uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. 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 lower on Wednesday as losses from the financial shares and property stocks were mitigated by support from the industrials.

For the day, the index shed 19.98 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 3,262.01 after trading between 3,243.60 and 3,266.23.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and United Overseas Bank both sank 0.71 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment declined 1.33 percent, City Developments fell 0.29 percent, DBS Group plunged 2.25 percent, Emperador skidded 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore tumbled 1.82 percent, Hongkong Land slumped1.13 percent, Keppel Corp soared 2.89 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust lost 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust stumbled 1.14 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slid 0.24 percent, SATS added 0.76 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 5.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering advanced 0.83 percent, SingTel rose 0.39 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.60 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 2.04 percent, Yangzijiang Financial retreated 1.30 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Comfort DelGro, Keppel DC REIT and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages spent much of the day hugging the unchanged line before sinking late in afternoon.

The Dow tumbled 270.29 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 33,414.24, while the NASDAQ lost 55.18 points or 0.46 percent to end at 12,025.33 and the S&P 500 sank 28.83 points or 0.70 percent to close at 4,090.75.

The lower close on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by another quarter-point but appeared to signal a potential pause in rate hikes.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments during his post-meeting press conference led to renewed uncertainty about the outlook for rates.

Powell said the central bank would take a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions and stressed a decision on a pause was not made at the meeting.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns about economic growth and the outlook for energy demand, as well as data showing an increase in gasoline inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $3.06 or 4.3 percent at $68.60 a barrel, the lowest settlement since March 24.