Singapore Bourse Expected To Remain Rangebound

The Singapore stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 45 points or 1.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,085-point plateau and it’s likely to stay in that neighborhood again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key U.S. employment data at the end of the week, while support from crude oil prices may nudge markets into the green. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

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

For the day, the index jumped 32.79 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 3,087.84 after trading between 3,055.01 and 3,093.42. Volume was 1.59 billion shares worth 1.02 billion Singapore dollars. There were 302 gainers and 193 decliners.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Logistics Trust both added 0.99 percent, while CapitaLand soared 1.75 percent, City Developments advanced 1.17 percent, Dairy Farm International surged 1.98 percent, DBS Group gained 0.87 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.31 percent, Keppel Corp increased 0.19 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust jumped 1.48 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation spiked 1.57 percent, SATS lost 0.49 percent, SembCorp Industries strengthened 0.52 percent, Singapore Exchange climbed 1.41 percent, Singapore Press Holdings shed 0.52 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 1.06 percent, SingTel and UOL Group both gathered 1.29 percent, Thai Beverage rose 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.27 percent, Wilmar International was up 0.72 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Singapore Airlines and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday, although the Dow quickly slipped into negative territory and finished in the red.

The Dow shed 48.20 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 35,312.53, while the NASDAQ gained 50.15 points or 0.33 percent to close at a record 15,309.38 and the S&P 500 rose 1.41 points or 0.03 percent to end at 4,524.09.

The lackluster close on Wall Street came as traders continued to look ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists currently expect employment to jump by 750,000 jobs in August after surging by 943,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 5.2 percent from 5.4 percent.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP noted weaker than expected private sector job growth in August. And the Institute for Supply Management said U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly grew at a slightly faster rate in August.

Crude oil futures settled marginally higher on Wednesday after data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended up $0.09 or 0.1 percent at $68.59 a barrel.