Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 35 points or 1.1 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,350-point plateau although it’s likely to bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism regarding the outlook for interest rates. 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 slightly lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index shed 7.63 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 3,349.27 after trading between 3,342.91 and 3,366.93. Volume was 1.63 billion shares worth 1.57 billion Singapore dollars. There were 315 decliners and 183 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT skidded 1.40 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust declined 1.72 percent, CapitaLand Investment tanked 2.60 percent, City Developments plunged 5.97 percent, Comfort DelGro soared 2.04 percent, DBS Group gained 038 percent, Hongkong Land climbed 0.85 percent, Keppel Corp shed 0.44 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust retreated 1.53 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tumbled 2.23 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dropped 0.56 percent, SembCorp Industries added 0.68 percent, Singapore Exchange rose 0.20 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 1.22 percent, SingTel lost 0.36 percent, Thai Beverage stumbled 1.46 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.83 percent, Venture Corporation surged 6.41 percent, Wilmar International sank 0.68 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 14.68 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surrendered 2.20 percent and Dairy Farm International, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Commercial Trust and SATS were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages hugged the unchanged line for most of the day before skyrocketing in the final hour.

The Dow surged 932.27 points or 2.81 percent to finish at 34,061.06, while the NASDAQ soared 401.10 points or 3.19 percent to end at 12,964.86 and the S&P 500 jumped 124.69 points or 2.99 percent to close at 4,300.17.

The late-day rally on Wall Street came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the central bank does not plan to raise interest rates as aggressively as some had feared.

The comments from Powell came after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to raise interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to return elevated inflation to its 2 percent objective – even though overall U.S. economy activity edged down in the first quarter.

In economic news, the Institute for Supply Management showed an unexpected slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in April. Also, payroll processor ADP showed U.S. private sector job growth slowed more than expected last month.

Crude oil prices rose sharply Wednesday, lifted by the European Union’s decision to impose sanctions on Russian oil. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June climbed $5.58 or 5.5 percent to $107.79 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release March data for retail sales later today; in February, sales were down 1.2 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year.