Singapore Shares Expected To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday ended the two-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 25 points or 0.7 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,360-point plateau although it's likely to tick lower again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower thanks to continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets are expected to split the difference.

The STI finished barely higher on Friday as gains from the financials and industrials were offset by weakness from the properties and trusts.

For the day, the index perked 1.21 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 3,360.69 after trading between 3,334.47 and 3,366.85.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT tanked 1.42 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust plunged 1.50 percent, CapitaLand Investment slumped 0.77 percent, City Developments dipped 0.12 percent, DBS Group was up 0.31 percent, Genting Singapore and Keppel DC REIT both declined 0.99 percent, Hongkong Land lost 0.21 percent, Keppel Corp gained 0.28 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust plummeted 1.70 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust retreated 0.86 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.59 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation added 0.38 percent, SATS shed 0.33 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering sank 0.54 percent, SingTel was down 0.40 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.49 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.39 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 0.81 percent and Comfort DelGro, Emperador and Thai Beverage were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is inconsistent as the major averages opened lower on Friday, although only the NASDAQ ended the session in the red.

The Dow climbed 169.37 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 33,869.27, while the NASDAQ sank 71.48 points or 061 percent to end at 11,718.12 and the S&P 500 rose 8.96 points or 0.22 percent to close at 4,090.46.

For the week, the NASSDAQ tumbled 2.4 percent, the S&P lost 1.1 percent and the Dow dipped 0.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street reflected lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates ahead of this week's closely watched inflation data.

Traders also reacted to mixed February consumer sentiment data released by the University of Michigan. While consumer sentiment saw a continued improvement in February, the report also showed a rebound in near-term inflation expectations.

Crude oil futures settled sharply higher Friday on continued optimism about higher fuel demand from China, and on Russia's move to reduce oil output next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended higher by $1.66 or 2.1 percent at $79.72 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 9 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q4 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning. In the previous three months GDP was up 0.8 percent on quarter and 2.2 percent on year.