Renewed Consolidation Likely For Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday ended the three-day slide in which it had dropped more than 80 points or 1.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,215-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were up and the Asian bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the trusts and mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index gained 28.81 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 4,216.19 after trading between 4,181.99 and 4,221.33.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT advanced 0.75 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust surged 2/75 percent, CapitaLand Investment jumped 1.12 percent, DBS Group added 0.52 percent, Genting Singapore improved 0.68 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.65 percent, Keppel DC REIT rose 0.43 percent, Keppel Ltd strengthened 0.97 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.50 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 0.87 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation increased 0.48 percent, SATS slumped 0.92 percent, Seatrium Limited gathered 0.44 percent, SembCorp Industries spiked 1.50 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tanked 1.84 percent, SingTel soared 2.44 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.03 percent, UOL Group rallied 1.27 percent, Wilmar International and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding both lost 0.35 percent, Yangzijiang Financial stumbled 1.89 percent and City Developments, Comfort DelGro, DFI Retail Group, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Thai Beverage were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday and spent most of the day in the red, although the Dow peeked up above the line at the end.

The Dow rose 10.45 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 44,922.27, while the NASDAQ tumbled 314.82 points or 1.46 percent to end at 21,314.95 and the S&P 500 sank 37.78 points or 0.59 percent to close at 6,411.37.

The slump by the NASDAQ came amid weakness in the tech sector, with shares of Nvidia (NVDA) plunging by 3.5 percent following reports that the company is developing a new AI chip for China.

On the other hand, the Dow benefitted from a surge by shares of Home Depot (HD), as the home improvement retailer shot up 3.2 percent after the company maintained its full-year guidance despite missing on Q2 results.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting later today and the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that gets underway on Thursday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at the symposium on Friday, with remarks potentially impacting the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil declined on Tuesday amid supply side concerns as OPEC continues to unwind 2.2 million barrels per day in voluntary cuts by its member nations. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.07 or 1.69 percent at $62.35 per barrel.