Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 30 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,870-point plateau although it may bounce higher again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky as uncertainty about U.S. trade policies continues to weigh. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the REITs and mixed performances from the financials, properties and industrials.

For the day, the index shed 10.00 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 3,871.05 after trading between 3,861.46 and 3,889.41.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT slumped 0.76 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust stumbled 0.97 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.39 percent, City Developments gained 0.42 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.65 percent, DBS Group perked 0.05 percent, DFI Retail rose 0.36 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 0.68 percent, Keppel DC REIT tumbled 0.91 percent, Keppel Ltd added 0.59 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust plunged 1.52 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 0.89 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation tanked 1.04 percent, SATS fell 0.34 percent, SembCorp Industries eased 0.15 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering spiked 1.41 percent, SingTel rallied 1.08 percent, Thai Beverage plummeted 3.03 percent, Wilmar International slid 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 4.14 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding shed 0.45 percent and Hongkong Land, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Seatrium Limited and UOL Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed to higher as the major averages opened in the green but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.

The Dow slumped 89.37 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 42,051.06, while the NASDAQ rallied 136.72 points or 0.72 percent to close at 19,146.81 and the S&P 500 rose 6.03 points or 0.10 percent to end at 5,892.58.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a step back to assess the recent rally by the markets, which has seen the S&P 500 rebound strongly from its early April lows to turn positive for 2025.

While trade deals between the U.S. and China and the U.K. have helped ease concerns about President Donald Trump's trade policies, uncertainty about the eventual outcome continues to hang over the markets.

Traders also were reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of a slew of U.S. economic data on Thursday, including producer prices, retail sales and industrial production. A speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is also likely to attract attention.

Crude oil prices slipped again on Wednesday, after data showed that U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly jumped last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery shed 0.80 or 1.27 percent to 62.87 per barrel.