Renewed Support Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 25 points or 0.7 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,220-point plateau although it's expected to rebound again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic following better than expected U.S. employment data. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 16.75 points or 0.52 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,218.26 after moving as low as 3,197.61.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment lost 0.37 percent, City Developments climbed 1.03 percent, Comfort DelGro rallied 1.38 percent, DBS Group skidded 0.78 percent, Emperador and Seatrium Limited both retreated 1.18 percent, Genting Singapore and Venture Corporation both gained 0.56 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.66 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.58 percent, Keppel Ltd fell 0.27 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust rose 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.67 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 0.15 percent, SATS advanced 0.79 percent, SembCorp Industries slid 0.18 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering declined 0.99 percent, SingTel shed 0.41 percent, Wilmar International slumped 0.86 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.52 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Frasers Logistics Trust, UOL Group, Thai Beverage and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened higher and remained firmly in the green throughout the session.

The Dow jumped 307.06 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 38,904.04, while the NASDAQ rallied 199.42 points or 1.24 percent to end at 16,248.52 and the S&P 500 advanced 57.13 points or 1.11 percent to close at 5,204.34.

For the week, the Dow plunged 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.0 percent and the NASDAQ slid 0.8 percent.

The strength on Wall Street followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected job growth in March.

While the stronger than expected job growth may have added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, the report also showed a continued slowdown in the annual rate of wage growth.

Oil futures rose on Friday, extending recent gains on supply worries due to geopolitical tensions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May added $0.32 or 0.37 percent at $86.91 a barrel, settling at a fresh five-month high. WTI crude futures gained 4 percent in the week.