Singapore Stock Market Has Flat Lead For Tuesday's Trade

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 70 points or 2.1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,260-point plateau and it may continue to spin its wheels again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later this week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were barely higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks.

For the day, the index shed 17.30 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 3,263.39 after trading between 3,259.03 and 3,285.15.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT sank 0.71 percent, while CapitaLand Investment stumbled 1.24 percent, City Developments surrendered 1.74 percent, DBS Group eased 0.03 percent, Emperador jumped 1.96 percent, Hongkong Land declined 1.41 percent, Keppel Corp tumbled 1.57 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust shed 0.65 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust lost 0.58 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation skidded 0.85 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.19 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 1.02 percent, SingTel gained 0.42 percent, Thai Beverage plummeted 2.56 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.79 percent, Yangzijiang Financial retreated 1.35 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.19 percent and Genting Singapore, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Comfort DelGro, SATS and Seatrium Limited were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Monday, bounced higher to spend most of the day in the green but faded late to end barely above the unchanged line.

The Dow added 6.06 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 34,624.30, while the NASDAQ rose 1.90 points or 0.01 percent to close at 13,710.24 and the S&P 500 perked 3.21 points or 0.07 percent to end at 4,453.53.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement and the central bank's projections for clues about the outlook for rates.

On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing homebuilder confidence in the U.S. has unexpectedly deteriorated in September.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday, rising for a third straight session on global supply issues and a weaker dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $0.71 or 0.8 percent at $91.48 a barrel, the highest settlement this year.