Singapore Stock Market May Erase Friday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 100 points or 2.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 4,240-point plateau although it's likely to find renewed support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology and financial shares likely to lead the way higher. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are also expected to tick higher on Monday.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the property stocks and a mixed performance from the financial shares and industrials.

For the day, the index lost 18.32 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 4,239.83 after trading between 4,221.20 and 4,251.01.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT shed 0.37 percent, while CapitaLand Investment lost 0.36 percent, City Developments tumbled 1.40 percent, DBS Group jumped 1.99 percent, DFI Retail Group rose 0.29 percent, Genting Singapore retreated 1.32 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.32 percent, Keppel DC REIT improved 0.43 percent, Keppel Ltd slumped 0.81 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and SingTel both dropped 0.75 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust sank 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation tanked 1.76 percent, SATS and United Overseas Bank both dipped 0.31 percent, Seatrium Limited added 0.42 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 13.85 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering plunged 2.36 percent, UOL Group declined 0.85 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.34 percent, Yangzijiang Financial stumbled 1.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.06 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Comfort DelGro, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Thai Beverage and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained well in the green throughout the session, finishing near daily highs.

The Dow climbed 206.97 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 44,175.61, while the NASDAQ jumped 207.32 points or 0.98 percent to close at a record 21,450.02 and the S&P 500 gained 49.45 points or 0.78 percent to end at 6,389.45.

For the week, the NASDAQ rallied 3.9 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.4 percent and the Dow shot up 1.4 percent.

Wall Street was led higher by the tech sector as shares of Apple (AAPL) showed a substantial move to the upside last week after announcing plans to spend about $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.

Computer hardware stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index climbing by 1.4 percent. Significant strength also emerged among banking, oil service, brokerage and networking stocks.

Crude oil posted very slight gains on Friday as uncertainty prevails over the U.S.-Russia conflict over the war with Ukraine, combined with the threat of sanctions on Russian oil exports. West Texas Intermediate crude for September was up $0.03 or 0.05 percent to $63.91 per barrel.