Little Movement Expected For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday snapped the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 90 points or 2.4 percent. The Straits Time Index now sits just above the 3,925-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat thanks to ongoing tariff concerns. 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 slightly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index dipped 4.04 point or 0.10 percent to finish at 3,926.45 after trading between 3,911.61 and 3,936.43.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.48 percent, while City Developments dropped 0.59 percent, DBS Group fell 0.20 percent, DFI Retail climbed 0.90 percent, Genting Singapore improved 0.66 percent, Hongkong Land slumped 0.92 percent, Keppel DC REIT shed 0.46 percent, Keppel Ltd tanked 1.15 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.48 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 0.24 percent, SATS rose 0.33 percent, Seatrium Limited rallied 0.93 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.79 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering plunged 4.20 percent, SingTel added 0.59 percent, Thai Beverage spiked 0.97 percent, Venture Corporation perked 0.16 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 6.62 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 5.56 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Investment, Emperador, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Wilmar International and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly positive as the major averages spent almost all of Friday in the red before peeking into the green just before the close.

The Dow added 32.05 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 41,985.35, while the NASDAQ gained 92.45 points or 0.52 percent to close at 17,784.05 and the S&P 500 perked 4.67 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,667.56.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.2 percent, while the S&P and the NASDAQ both ended four-week losing streaks, rising by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The early weakness on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the economic outlook along with rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Crude oil prices bounced higher on Friday on geopolitical tensions after new U.S. sanctions against a Chinese refinery that purchased Iranian oil. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery climbed $0.23 or 0.3 percent to $68.30 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release February figures for consumer prices later today. Overall inflation is expected to rise 1.0 percent on year, easing from 1.2 percent in January. Core CPI is called higher by an annual 0.7 percent, easing from 0.8 percent in the previous month.