Singapore Bourse Expected To Remain Rangebound On Friday

The Singapore stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, dropping almost 40 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,140-point plateau and it’s likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with support from technology stocks and weakness from oil companies. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished barely lower on Thursday following losses from the financials and properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index eased 1.26 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 3,138.31 after trading between 3,121.75 and 3,150.37. Volume was 1.68 billion shares worth 1.22 billion Singapore dollars. There were 270 decliners and 210 gainers.

Among the actives, CapitaLand retreated 0.54 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and SembCorp Industries both dropped 0.47 percent, City Developments declined 0.53 percent, Comfort DelGro added 0.61 percent, Dairy Farm International advanced 0.71 percent, DBS Group eased 0.07 percent, Genting Singapore gained 0.57 percent, Keppel Corp skidded 0.58 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust increased 0.47 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation tumbled 0.66 percent, SATS lost 0.25 percent, Singapore Airlines jumped 1.42 percent, Singapore Exchange dipped 0.09 percent, Singapore Press Holdings rose 0.55 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 1.03 percent, United Overseas Bank shed 0.42 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 1.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 1.43 percent and SingTel, Thai Beverage and Ascendas REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is wildly inconsistent as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but then went off on their own different directions. The NASDAQ stayed positive, the Dow stayed negative and the S&P 500 hugged the line and finished barely in the red.

The Dow dropped 210.22 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 33,823.45, while the NASDAQ spiked 121.67 points or 0.87 percent to end at 14,161.35 and the S&P 500 eased 1.84 points or 0.04 percent to close at 4,221.86.

The mixed performance on Wall Street came as traders moved out of cyclicals and into tech stocks after Wednesday’s announcement from the Federal Reserve, which saw the central bank move up its timeline for raising interest rates.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted an unexpected uptick in initial jobless claims last week. Also, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity expanded at a slightly slower rate in June.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday, weighed down by a stronger dollar after Federal Reserve officials projected that interest rates might be hiked by 2023. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down by $1.11 or 1.5 percent at $71.04 a barrel.

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