The Singapore stock market has finished higher in two straight sessions, advancing almost 85 points or 2.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,220-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky to lower, weighed by pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index jumped 45.25 points or 1.42 percent to finish at 3,221.94 after trading between 3,181.36 and 3,229.13.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT gained 1.09 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 2.08 percent, CapitaLand Investment spiked 3.52 percent, City Developments strengthened 1.67 percent, Comfort DelGro surged 4.44 percent, DBS Group climbed 1.62 percent, Hongkong Land and Wilmar International both jumped 1.89 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 1.14 percent, Keppel Ltd shed 0.41 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust accelerated 2.17 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust picked up 0.42 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust increased 1.31 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 1.07 percent, SATS perked 0.73 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 8.14 percent, SembCorp Industries was up 0.70 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gathered 0.77 percent, SingTel advanced 1.28 percent, Thai Beverage rose 1.01 percent, Yangzijiang Financial improved 1.54 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 3.70 percent and Emperador and Genting Singapore were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday and spent most of the session in the red before finishing under water.
The Dow dropped 145.11 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 38,627.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 130.55 points or 0.82 percent to close at 15,775.65 and the S&P 500 sank 24.16 points or 0.48 percent to end at 5,005.57.
The early weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of a Labor Department report showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. producer prices in January.
Following last week’s hotter-than expected consumer price inflation figures, the data added to concerns the Federal Reserve will postpone cutting interest rates longer than investors had hoped.
However, the negative sentiment was partly offset by a separate report from the University of Michigan showing an uptick in consumer sentiment in February.
Oil price climbed higher on Friday, lifting the most active WTI Crude futures to a 11-week high, on concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.16 at $79.19 a barrel. – RTT News
