Singapore Stock Market Has A Green Light For Friday

The Singapore stock market on Thursday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,160-point plateau and it’s poised to extend its gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following encouraging inflation data from the United States. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished slightly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial and property shares and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index gained 9.03 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 3,162.50 after trading between 3,154.16 and 3,174.65. Volume was 1.95 billion shares worth 1.06 billion Singapore dollars. There were 250 decliners and 232 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT gathered 0.68 percent, while CapitaLand rallied 1.08 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.47 percent, City Developments dipped 0.13 percent, Comfort DelGro spiked 1.80 percent, Dairy Farm International dropped 0.46 percent, DBS Group perked 0.57 percent, Genting Singapore sank 0.57 percent, Keppel Corp was up 0.19 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust jumped 0.94 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust advanced 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.24 percent, SATS surged 1.96 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.38 percent, Singapore Airlines soared 1.99 percent, Singapore Exchange lost 0.38 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.26 percent, SingTel shed 0.43 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank gained 0.27 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.21 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding skidded 0.69 percent and Singapore Press Holdings and Jardine Strategic Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks opened higher on Thursday, tumbled shortly thereafter but rebounded to end in the green.

The Dow added 19.10 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 34,466.24, while the NASDAQ jumped 108.58 points or 0.78 percent to end at 14,020.33 and the SYP 500 rose 19.63 points or 0.47 percent to close at 4,239.18.

The higher close on Wall Street followed the release of a highly anticipated Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in consumer prices in May.

Also, the Labor Department reported another modest decrease in first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil futures moved higher on Thursday amid optimism energy demand will pick up gradually following an Energy Information Administration (EIA) report that showed a big drop in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.33 or 0.5 percent at $70.29 a barrel.