Singapore Stock Market May Be Stuck In Neutral On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had risen almost 35 points or 1.1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,115-point plateau and it's expected to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed amid a lack of catalysts, with optimism over the outlook for interest rates preventing any heavy selling. The European and U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, gains from the properties and a mixed performance from the industrials.

For the day, the index eased 6.44 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 3,116.51 after trading between 3,106.73 and 3,128.64.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT shed 0.67 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.50 percent, CapitaLand Investment tumbled 1.30 percent, City Developments soared 4.00 percent, DBS Group slumped 1.08 percent, DFI Retail surged 4.44 percent, Genting Singapore climbed 1.02 percent, Hongkong Land accelerated 1.81 percent, Keppel Corp and Mapletree Logistics Trust both added 0.59 percent, Keppel DC REIT plummeted 9.13 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust spiked 2.01 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 0.82 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 0.80 percent, Seatrium Limited jumped 1.90 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.39 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering lost 0.52 percent, Thai Beverage dropped 0.99 percent, UOL Group rallied 2.94 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.58 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.70 percent and Emperador, Comfort DelGro, SATS, SingTel and Yangzijiang Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and finished the same way, little changed.

The Dow added 56.76 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 37,305.16, while the NASDAQ gained 52.32 points or 0.35 percent to close at 14,813.92 and the S&P 500 eased 0.36 points or 0.01 percent to end at 4,719.19.

The major averages all closed higher for the seventh consecutive week. The Dow and the NASDAQ both surged by 2.9 percent, while the S&P 500 jumped by 2.5 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a breather following the recent upward move by the markets, although optimism about the outlook for interest rates continued to support the markets.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve released a report showing a modest rebound in U.S. industrial production in November.

Oil futures posted their first weekly gain in two months despite settling on a slightly weak note on Friday. An upward revision in oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency and a weak dollar pushed up crude oil prices over the past few sessions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January eased $0.15 at $71.43 a barrel on Friday but added 0.2% for the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will release November numbers for non-oil domestic exports later this morning. In October, NODX was up 3.4 percent on month and down 3.4 percent on year.