The Singapore stock market on Thursday snapped the modest two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,200-point plateau although figures to bounce higher again on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on expectations for solid earnings news and support from crude oil prices. 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 modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index sank 14.35 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 3,203.82 after trading between 3,196.18 and 3,227.13. Volume was 2 billion shares worth 1.3 billion Singapore dollars. There were 298 decliners and 164 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT fell 0.32 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.46 percent, City Developments skidded 0.68 percent, Dairy Farm International plummeted 2.75 percent, DBS Group lost 0.44 percent, Hongkong Land added 0.74 percent, Keppel Corp stumbled 0.56 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation tumbled 1.00 percent, SATS surrendered 0.95 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 0.49 percent, Singapore Airlines slumped 0.57 percent, Singapore Exchange sank 0.51 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tanked 1.03 percent, SingTel plunged 1.17 percent, Thai Beverage retreated 0.69 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.19 percent, Wilmar International declined 0.91 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 1.42 percent and Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Genting Singapore, Singapore Press Holdings, Comfort DelGro and CapitaLand were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened firmly higher on Thursday and stayed in the green throughout the trading day.
The Dow jumped 239.79 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 35,730.48, while the NASDAQ spiked 212.28 points or 1.39 percent to close at 15,448.12 and the S&P 500 gained 44.74 points or 0.98 percent to end at 4,596.42.
A positive reaction to the latest batch of earnings news from big-name companies helped stocks renew the upward trend seen in recent sessions, fueled by the likes of Ford (F), Brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Caterpillar (CAT) and Merck (MRK).
Adding to the positive sentiment, a report from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims fell for the fourth straight week last week.
Crude oil futures settled marginally higher Thursday, recovering from an early setback as prices were weighed down by data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories and the prospect of Iranian crude entering the market. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December ended up by $0.15 or 0.2 percent at $82.81 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will release September numbers for bank lending, import prices, export prices and producer prices and Q3 figures for unemployment and business confidence later today.
In August, bank lending was worth SGD790.1 billion, while import prices rose 12.8 percent on year, export prices jumped 14.2 percent on year and producer prices spiked an annual 17.0 percent. The jobless rate in Q2 was 2.7 percent and the business confidence index score was 20.0.
Market Analysis
Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market
2021-10-29 00:00:13
