Singapore Stock Market Due For Consolidation

The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in five straight sessions, gathering more than 60 points or 2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,165-point plateau although investors may cash in on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data from the United States later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index gained 18.73 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 3,164.82 after trading between 3,135.37 and 3,171.72. Volume was 2.61 billion shares worth 3.39 billion Singapore dollars. There were 297 gainers and 195 decliners.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT dropped 0.34 percent, while CapitaLand added 0.55 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.49 percent, City Developments advanced 0.79 percent, Comfort DelGro spiked 2.47 percent, Dairy Farm International tumbled 1.12 percent
DBS Group rose 0.30 percent, Keppel Corp rallied 1.33 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust skidded 0.97 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust plunged 1.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 1.47 percent, SATS soared 2.93 percent, SembCorp Industries perked 0.94 percent, Singapore Airlines accelerated 2.06 percent, Singapore Exchange jumped 1.64 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gathered 1.31 percent, SingTel fell 0.41 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.46 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.42 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 4.17 percent and Genting Singapore, Thai Beverage, Singapore Press Holdings and Jardine Strategic Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is conflicted as the Dow and S&P both opened in the green on Friday and finished the same way, while the NASDAQ saw a soft start and ended barely lower.

The Dow climbed 141.59 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 34,464.64, while the NASDAQ eased 1.72 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,736.28 and the S&P 500 rose 4.89 points or 0.12 percent to end at 4,200.88.

The lackluster performance came as traders continued to look ahead to a highly anticipated reading on inflation later today. The inflation reading is said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve and could have a significant impact on the outlook for monetary policy.

Traders were also digesting a report from the Labor Department showing weekly jobless claims once again fell to a new pandemic-era low. The continued decrease in jobless claims paints a positive picture of the labor market but also raised concerns that the Fed will move closer to tapering its asset purchases in the near future.

Also, the Commerce Department showed an unexpected pullback in durable goods orders in April, and a separate report noted that the pace of U.S. economic growth in the first quarter was unrevised from the advance estimate.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Thursday, extending gains to a fifth straight session on following a drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $0.64 or 1 percent at $66.85 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide April figures for import and export prices, as well as producer prices later today. In March, import prices were up 8.3 percent on year and export prices gained an annual 3.5 percent, while producer prices jumped 9.6 percent on year.

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