The Singapore stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after ending the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled more than 60 points or 1.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,150-point plateau although it’s likely to rebound on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over upcoming earnings, especially among the technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished slightly lower on Monday following weakness from the financials and mixed performances from the property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index eased 3.17 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 3,149.12 after trading between 3,146.54 and 3,166.53.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT rallied 1.39 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust advanced 1.02 percent, CapitaLand Investment plunged 2.01 percent, City Developments added 0.79 percent, Comfort DelGro jumped 1.44 percent, DBS Group dropped 0.47 percent, Emperador improved 1.00 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 1.60 percent, Keppel DC REIT climbed 1.12 percent, Keppel Ltd sank 0.44 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust spiked 2.07 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rose 0.62 percent, SATS slumped 0.70 percent, Seatrium Limited plummeted 4.46 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 0.56 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.78 percent, SingTel fell 0.42 percent, Wilmar International declined 0.89 percent, Yangzijiang Financial retreated 1.54 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding increased 0.61 percent and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Genting Singapore were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened solidly higher, with the Dow and S&P hitting fresh record intraday highs; they faded as the day progressed but still ended well in the green.
The Dow climbed 138.01 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 38,001.81, while the NASDAQ gained 49.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,360.29 and the S&P 500 rose 10.62 points or 0.22 percent to end at 4,850.43.
The early strength on Wall Street came on continued optimism about the outlook for earnings from major tech firms, with Intel (INTC), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Netflix (NFLX) among the companies due to release their quarterly results this week.
In economic news, the Conference Board noted a modest decrease in its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in December, continuing to signal underlying weakness in the U.S. economy.
Oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East, and extreme cold weather in North America. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled at $75.19 a barrel, gaining $1.78 or about 2.4 percent. – RTT News
