Soft Start Seen For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one day after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 90 points or 2.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,460-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. jobs data later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares, properties and trusts.

For the day, the index gained 17.28 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 3,458.66 after trading between 3,433.71 and 3,465.08.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 1.46 percent, while CapitaLand Investment rose 0.36 percent, City Developments added 0.58 percent, Comfort DelGro strengthened 1.40 percent, DBS Group rose 0.14 percent, Emperador tumbled 1.15 percent, Genting Singapore sank 0.61 percent, Hongkong Land gained 0.56 percent, Keppel DC REIT surged 4.35 percent, Keppel Ltd eased 0.16 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 2.99 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust spiked 1.65 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust improved 0.74 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.62 percent, SATS advanced 0.83 percent, Seatrium Limited increased 0.64 percent, SembCorp Industries slumped 0.62 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gathered 0.23 percent, SingTel fell 0.32 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 0.95 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.45 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding accelerated 1.56 percent and Wilmar International was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street remains conflicted as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending little changed.

The Dow shed 219.22 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 40,755.75, while the NASDAQ added 43.36 points or 0.25 percent to close at 17,127.66 and the S&P 500 sank 16.66 points or 0.30 percent to end at 5,503.41.

The mixed performance on Wall Street followed the release of mixed readings on employment ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

Economists expect employment to add 160,000 jobs in August after rising by 114,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected to ease to 4.2 percent in August from 4.3 percent in July, which was its highest level since October 2021.

Before the start of trading, payroll processor ADP released a report showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of August.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Thursday due to concerns about the outlook for demand, although the downside was limited by reports that OPEC has postponed plans to boost production next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $0.05 at $69.15 a barrel, the lowest settlement in about nine months.