Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

The Singapore stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the six-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 75 points or 2.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,160-point plateau and it’s likely to bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, supported by crude oil prices. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index sank 26.19 points or 0.82 percent to finish at 3,161.04 after trading between 3,153.83 and 3,186.98. Volume was 2.33 billion shares worth 1.28 billion Singapore dollars. There were 260 decliners and 234 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and United Overseas Bank both lost 0.68 percent, while CapitaLand fell 0.54 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Mapletree Commercial Trust both eased 0.48 percent, City Developments surrendered 1.03 percent, Comfort DelGro retreated 1.18 percent, DBS Group tanked 1.42 percent, Genting Singapore jumped 1.17 percent, Keppel Corp shed 0.74 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust and SATS both slid 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation plummeted 1.51 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.90 percent, Singapore Airlines dropped 0.80 percent, Singapore Exchange dipped 0.39 percent, Singapore Press Holdings declined 1.12 percent, SingTel skidded 1.23 percent, Thai Beverage plunged 1.44 percent, Wilmar International tumbled 1.24 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Dairy Farm International, Singapore Technologies Engineering and Jardine Strategic Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as stocks spent much of Wednesday’s session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending slightly higher.

The Dow added 25.07 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 34,600.38, while the NASDAQ rose 19.85 points or 0.14 percent to end at 13,756.33 and the S&P 500 was up 6.08 points or 0.14 percent to close at 4,208.12.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected continued optimism about the outlook for the global economy following Tuesday’s upbeat manufacturing data although trading activity remained light amid lingering inflation concerns.

The Labor Department’s looming monthly jobs report also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the closely watched data on Friday.

Traders largely shrugged off the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which said the U.S. economy increased at a somewhat faster rate from early April to late May due in part to the positive effects of increased Covid-19 vaccination rates and relaxed social distancing measures.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session, amid rising hopes about a pickup in energy demand and on the decision by OPEC to gradually increase crude production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $1.11 or 1.6 percent at $68.83 a barrel, the highest since October 2018.