Singapore Bourse May Be Stuck In Neutral On Thursday

The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Wednesday, one day after ending the six-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 185 points or 5.1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,720-point plateau and it may spin its wheels on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky on a mixed outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financials, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index gained 8.86 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 3,720.34 after trading between 3,670.70 and 3,723.58.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment dropped 0.71 percent, City Developments slumped 1.15 percent, DBS Group advanced 1.04 percent, Genting Singapore tumbled 1.27 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 2.00 percent, Keppel DC REIT rallied 1.35 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust slid 0.44 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.56 percent, SATS shed 0.53 percent, Seatrium Limited lost 0.52 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 0.98 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.64 percent, SingTel added 0.95 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.96 percent, Wilmar International sank 0.65 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding climbed 1.17 percent and Keppel Ltd, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Emperador, Yangzijiang Financial and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday but quickly faded and wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 47.21 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 43,958.19, while the NASDAQ sank 50.66 points or 0.26 percent to close at 19,230.74 and the S&P 500 perked 1.39 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,985.38.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came following the release of closely watched consumer price inflation data that came in line with estimates.

While the data increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will continue lowering interest rates next month, inflation remaining somewhat sticky led to uncertainty about the likelihood of future rate cuts.

CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 82.3 percent chance of another quarter point rate cut in December but a 60.2 percent chance rates will then be left unchanged in January.

Oil prices climbed higher on Wednesday thanks to short covering after recent sharp losses, while a firm dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December closed up $0.31 or 0.46 percent at $68.43 a barrel.