The Singapore stock market turned lower again on Friday, one session after halting the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost 10 points or 0.3 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,275-point plateau and it’s tipped to open in the green again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the properties and REITs and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrials.
For the day, the index shed 15.94 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 3,276.72 after trading between 3,271.08 and 3,290.32.
Among the actives, as cited by RTTNews, Ascendas REIT tanked 2.15 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tumbled 1.96 percent, CapitaLand Investment plummeted 4.40 percent, City Developments plunged 2.87 percent, DBS Group skidded 0.89 percent, DFI Retail surged 5.65 percent, Emperador slumped 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1.04 percent, Keppel Corp sank 0.82 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust retreated 1.74 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust stumbled 1.32 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust declined 1.84 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.48 percent, SATS gained 0.35 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 0.88 percent, SingTel added 0.40 percent, United Overseas Bank lost 0.42 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.24 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.45 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 4.24 percent and Hongkong Land, SembCorp Industries, Thai Beverage and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but only accelerated as the day continued, ending near session highs.
