Higher Open Expected For Singapore Stock Market

The Singapore stock market turned lower again on Wednesday, one day after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,140-point plateau although it’s tipped to open in the green again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, with selling in the previous session deemed to be seriously overdone. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the properties, support from the industrials and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index slid 2.80 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 3,139.07 after trading between 3,092.40 and 3,142.08.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust both dropped 0.73 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust stumbled 1.32 percent, CapitaLand Investment shed 0.70 percent, City Developments declined1.34 percent, Comfort DelGro retreated 1.44 percent, DBS Group collected 0.25 percent, Emperador jumped 1.98 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 1.54 percent, Keppel DC REIT strengthened 1.15 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.28 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust added 0.67 percent, SATS sank 0.73 percent, Seatrium Limited plummeted 3.37 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.36 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 1.06 percent, SingTel improved 0.86 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 1.02 percent, UOL Group plunged 1.99 percent, Wilmar International slumped 0.94 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.24 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Yangzijiang Financial and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely remained that way, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 151.52 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,424.27, while the NASDAQ rallied 203.55 points or 1.30 percent to end at 15,859.15 and the S&P 500 advanced 47.45 points or 0.96 percent to close at 5,000.62.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, with traders seeing Tuesday’s sharp pullback as a buying opportunity amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the markets.

While Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected inflation data further pushed back interest rate cut hopes, signs of continued strength in the economy are still expected to benefit the markets long term.

The Federal Reserve is also still likely to begin lower interest rates sometime in the coming months, even if traders have to wait until June.

Oil futures settled lower on Wednesday, snapping a seven-day winning streak after data showed a big increase in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.