The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day winning streak in which it had rallied almost 110 points or 3.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,180-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on optimism over earnings, although profit taking may take hold later in the day. The European and U.S. markets saw mostly modest gains and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.
The STI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks, trusts and industrials.
For the day, the index stumbled 38.03 points or 1.18 percent to finish at 3,184.91 after trading between 3,179.35 and 3,216.65.
Among the actives, Genting Singapore plummeted 9.71 percent, while Seatrium plunged 7.00 percent, CapitaLand Investment tanked 4.14 percent, UOL Group surrendered 3.06 percent, City Developments tumbled 2.27 percent, SembCorp Industries retreated 2.06 percent, Hongkong Land declined 1.80 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding stumbled 1.78 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust slumped 1.52 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Trust weakened 1.42 percent, Emperador jumped 1.00 percent, Keppel Ltd. skidded 0.95 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust dropped 0.85 percent, SingTel sank 0.84 percent, SATS shed 0.76 percent, Comfort DelGro lost 0.71 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust fell 0.66 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and Wilmar International both slid 0.59 percent, Keppel DC REIT dipped 0.56 percent, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT slipped 0.36 percent, DBS Group was down 0.35 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering eased 0.25 percent and DFI Retail, Yangzijiang Financial and Thai Beverage were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened solidly higher on Friday but faded as the day progressed, with the NASDAQ finishing in the red.
The Dow added 62.43 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 39,131.53, while the NASDAQ sank 44.78 points or 0.28 percent to close at 15,996.82 and the S&P 500 rose 1.77 points or 0.03 percent to end at 5,088.80.
For the holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 surged 1.7 percent, the NASDAQ jumped 1.4 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.
The early upward move reflected an extension of the rally seen in during Thursday’s session, which came on the heels of upbeat earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA).
Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders took a breather following Thursday’s surge.
Crude oil futures settled sharply lower on Friday as concerns about the outlook for demand and the recent data showing a jump in U.S. crude inventories weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped $2.12 or 2.65 percent at $76.49 a barrel. – RTT News
