Win Streak May Continue For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering more than 35 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,370-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of Friday's U.S. employment data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financials, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index gained 29.33 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 3,367.90 after trading between 3,338.99 and 3,369.23.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT rose 0.39 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.51 percent, CapitaLand Investment and City Developments both slid 0.38 percent, DBS Group surged 2.71 percent, Emperador retreated 1.16 percent, Genting Singapore plunged 1.78 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.54 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.55 percent, Keppel Ltd tumbled 1.24 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust skidded 0.81 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 0.77 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation soared 2.07 percent, SATS slumped 1.05 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 1,900.00 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 4.32 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 0.70 percent, SingTel advanced 0.72 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.12 percent, Wilmar International sank 0.65 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 1.45 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 1.67 percent and Comfort DelGro and Mapletree Industrial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and hugged the line for much of the day before a late surge sent them firmly into the green by the close.

The Dow jumped 162.33 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 39,331.85, while the NASDAQ rallied 149.46 points or 0.84 percent to close at 18,028.76 and the S&P 500 gained 33.92 points or 0.62 percent to end at 5,509.01.

The soft start on Wall Street followed comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who expressed satisfaction with the progress on inflation but said he wants to see more before being confident enough to start cutting interest rates.

Stocks moved higher after bond yields drifted down as investors look ahead to key employment data later in the week.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday amid easing fears about supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Beryl. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended down $0.57 or about 0.7 percent at $82.81 a barrel.