Singapore Shares May See Additional Support

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday wrote a finish to the six-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 60 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,215-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on hopes the Republican-manufactured U.S. debt ceiling situation can soon be resolved. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and the industrial stocks.

For the day, the index rose 6.17 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 3,214.72 after trading between 3,196.86 and 3,216.31.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT added 0.70 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment retreated 1.10 percent, DBS Group climbed 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore plummeted 7.21 percent, Hongkong Land soared 1.79 percent, Keppel Corp gained 0.62 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust fell 0.59 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 0.86 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tumbled 1.16 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation perked 0.08 percent, SATS sank 0.75 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.51 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering skidded 0.82 percent, SingTel dropped 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding both improved 0.85 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.76 percent, Wilmar International was up 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 2.90 percent and City Developments, Comfort DelGro, Emperador, Keppel DC REIT, Frasers Logistics and UOL Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened lower on Monday, stagnated for a bit and then finally crept up into positive territory.

The Dow added 47.98 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 33,348.60, while the NASDAQ jumped 80.47 points or 0.66 percent to close at 12,365.21 and the S&P 500 rose 12.20 points or 0.30 percent to end at 4,136.28.

The higher close on Wall Street may partly have reflected optimism about an eventual agreement on raising the U.S. debt following comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Yellen said the administration and congressional Republicans are making progress in their negotiations over federal spending and raising the debt limit.

In economic news, the New York Fed released a report this morning showing a strong downturn in regional manufacturing activity in May.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Monday, riding on prospects of lower supplies in Canada and elsewhere, while a weaker dollar also contributed to oil's uptick. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June gained $1.07 or 1.5 percent at $71.11 a barrel after three days of losses.