Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Singapore stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, shedding almost 20 points or 0.6 percent in that span. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,140-point plateau although it may find mild support on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with many countries still off for the Lunar New Year holiday. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished slightly lower in Friday’s half-day session following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial issues.
For the day, the index slipped 4.61 points or 0.15 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,138.30 after moving as low as 3,117.46.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT surged 2.22 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.50 percent, City Developments and Thai Beverage both slumped 1.00 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.71 percent, DBS Group collected 0.25 percent, Emperador rallied 1.00 percent, Genting Singapore soared 2.00 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 2.16 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.28 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.42 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.23 percent, SATS shed 0.37 percent, Seatrium Limited plunged 3.33 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 0.72 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.27 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 4.29 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.61 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.61 percent and CapitaLand Investment, Keppel DC REIT, Frasers Logistics, SingTel, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened flat, quickly moved higher but then faded, with only the Dow holding its gains and hitting a fresh record close.
The Dow gained 125.69 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 38,797.38, while the NASDAQ sank 48.12 points or 0.30 percent to close at 15,942.54 and the S&P 500 eased 4.77 points or 0.09 percent to end at 5,021.84.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a breather following recent strength, which has lifted the S&P 500 above 5,000 for the first time. The NASDAQ has also shown a significant advance in recent sessions, closing in on the record highs set in November 2021.
A lack of major U.S. economic data also kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports in the coming days. Later today, the Labor Department is due to release its report on consumer price inflation for January, which could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.
Treasuries fluctuated on Monday before eventually ending the day modestly higher. After an early move to the upside, bond prices gave back ground but rebounded in the afternoon. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, eased 1.5 basis points to 4.172 percent.
Crude oil futures settled roughly flat on Monday as demand concerns outweighed potential supply disruptions. The dollar’s recovery from lower levels also weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March settled at $76.92 a barrel, up $0.08 from the previous close. – RTT News
