More Pain Predicted For Singapore Stock Market

The Singapore stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sliding almost 60 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,150-point plateau and it’s tipped to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on growing concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

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

For the day, the index dropped 34.95 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 3,150.43 after trading between 3,147.24 and 3,185.63.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT eased 0.37 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 1.04 percent, CapitaLand Investment fell 0.91 percent, City Developments slumped 1.45 percent, Comfort DelGro gained 0.84 percent, DBS Group declined 1.60 percent, Emperador advanced 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore slipped 0.53 percent, Hongkong Land dropped 1.29 percent, Keppel Corp plunged 2.70 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 1.22 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust slid 0.90 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tumbled 1.81 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation shed 1.06 percent, SATS was down 0.77 percent, Seatrium Limited dipped 0.79 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 4.95 percent, SingTel retreated 1.58 percent, Thai Beverage added 0.88 percent, Wilmar International skidded 1.36 percent, Yangzijiang Financial stumbled 1.47 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 0.68 percent and Singapore Technologies Engineering and Keppel DC REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests consolidation as the major averages opened firmly lower on Thursday and remained in the red throughout the trading day.

The Dow plunged 366.38 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 33,922.26, while the NASDAQ tumbled 112.61 points or 0.82 percent to close at 13,679.04 and the S&P 500 sank 35.23 points or 0.79 percent to end at 4,411.59.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came as a batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data added to concerns about the outlook for interest rates following Wednesday’s hawkish Federal Reserve minutes.

Before the start of trading, payroll processor ADP released a report showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in June. While the surge in private sector employment paints a positive picture of the economy, it also may convince the Fed to resume raising interest rates.

The Institute for Supply Management also released a report showing the pace of growth in the service sector accelerated by much more than expected in June.

Oil futures settled roughly flat on Thursday with traders weighing the impact of higher interest rates on growth and energy demand against data showing a drop in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August settled at $71.80 a barrel, up a penny from the previous close.