Singapore Stock Market Tipped To Open In The Red

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked lower in four consecutive trading days, slumping almost 115 points or 3.5 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,130-point plateau and it may take further damage on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continuing fears of a financial crisis. The European markets were sharply lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished sharply lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index stumbled 45.06 points or 1.42 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,132.37 after peaking at 3,175.87. Among the actives, Ascendas REIT was down 0.37 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tumbled 2.14 percent, CapitaLand Investment skidded 1.44 percent, City Developments slumped 1.50 percent, Comfort DelGro stumbled 1.68 percent, DBS Group weakened 1.45 percent, Emperador rallied 2.00 percent, Genting Singapore surrendered 1.92 percent, Hongkong Land eased 0.23 percent, Keppel Corp and Yangzijiang Financial both plummeted 2.56 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust declined 1.81 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust sank 1.32 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust fell 1.24 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation retreated 1.70 percent, SATS slipped 0.83 percent, SembCorp Industries shed 1.31 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slid 1.18 percent, SingTel lost 1.27 percent, Thai Beverage plunged 2.34 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 1.36 percent, Wilmar International climbed 1.02 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 2.29 percent. The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Monday bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 90.50 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 31,819.14, while the NASDAQ added 49.96 points or 0.45 percent to close at 11,188.84 and the S&P 500 dipped 5.83 points or 0.15 percent to end at 3,855.76.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on continued concerns over the fallout from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse - which triggered heavy selling, particularly in the banking sector.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said they would "fully protect" depositors, including those with assets above the federally guaranteed $250,000 limit, but traders were not reassured.

Investors are also nervous ahead of the ECB meeting and key inflation data due out later this week.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday amid worries that a U.S. banking debacle may follow last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures settled lower by $1.88 or 2.4 percent at $74.80 a barrel.