Singapore Shares Likely Rangebound On Thursday

The Singapore stock market on Wednesday ended the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped almost 50 points or 1.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,085-point plateau and it’s expected to see little movement on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key U.S. inflation data later today. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets expect to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index gained 18.76 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 3,084.70 after trading between 3,075.90 and 3,094.61.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT spiked 1.79 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Keppel DC REIT both gained 0.54 percent, CapitaLand Investment added 0.99 percent, City Developments soared 2.13 percent, DBS Group gathered 0.41 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1.11 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 1.54 percent, Keppel Corp improved 1.42 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust strengthened 1.48 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust surged 3.18 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.55 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.78 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 0.27 percent, SingTel rose 0.44 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 1.00 percent, Wilmar International rallied 1.66 percent and Yangzijiang Financial, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Emperador, Comfort DelGro, SATS, Seatrium Limited and Mapletree Industrial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but faded as the day progressed, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 13.44 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 35,430.42, while the NASDAQ slid 23.27 points or 0.16 percent to close at 14,258.49 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.31 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,550.58.

Stocks saw early strength amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates, also riding a surge by shares of General Motors (GM) after the auto giant announced a $10 billion stock buyback and increased dividend.

Buying interest waned as the day has progress, however, with traders looking ahead to the release of key inflation readings later today.

Crude oil showed another strong move to the upside on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session ahead of a key OPEC meeting later today. West Texas Intermediate for January delivery jumped $1.45 or 1.9 percent to $77.86 a barrel.