Singapore Bourse May Remain Stuck In Neutral On Monday

Ahead of the market holiday for Good Friday, the Singapore stock market had halted the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 60 points or 1.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,300-point plateau and it may spin its wheels again on Monday.

There’s not much of a global forecast, as most of the markets in Europe and the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday. Key U.S. employment data was roughly in line with expectations, suggesting a steady if quiet session.

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the property stocks and trusts, while the financials and industrials were mixed.

For the day, the index sank 18.39 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 3,300.48 after trading between 3,291.65 and 3,314.74.

Among the actives,
Ascendas REIT and Hongkong Land both plunged 2.05 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment and SingTel both skidded 0.79 percent, City Developments retreated 1.09 percent, Comfort DelGro slumped 0.83 percent, DBS Group rose 0.21 percent, Keppel Corp eased 0.17 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding both tumbled 1.63 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust declined 1.24 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust plummeted 2.59 percent, SATS and Singapore Technologies Engineering both stumbled 1.08 percent, SembCorp Industries climbed 1.15 percent, Thai Beverage surrendered 1.50 percent, United Overseas Bank sank 0.43 percent, Wilmar International tanked 1.89 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore, Yangzijiang Financial and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the stock and oil markets were closed for Good Friday. The big catalyst for the day, however, was the closely watched U.S. jobs report for March.

The Labor Department said that employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with forecasts in March as non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Also, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February; the unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

The numbers fall in the butter zone, which is to say good enough to dispel fears of an economic slowdown but not so good as the encourage the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable applying another rate hike anytime soon.

Market Analysis