Continued Consolidation Expected For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday ended the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 40 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,900-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuous tariff concerns, while oil stocks are likely to be weak after OPEC+ announced another production hike over the weekend. The European and U.S. bourses were mostly down and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index slumped 22.23 points or 0.57 percent to finish at the daily low of 3,894.61 after peaking at 3,917.85.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT spiked 1.53 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.48 percent, City Developments gained 0.21 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.71 percent, DBS Group shed 0.60 percent, DFI Retail surged 2.99 percent, Frasers Centrepoint Trust increased 0.46 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.19 percent, Keppel DC REIT strengthened 0.92 percent, Keppel Ltd dropped 0.88 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust climbed 0.85 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust improved 0.52 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust soared 1.83 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slumped 0.98 percent, SATS sank 0.64 percent, Seatrium Limited skidded 0.97 percent, SembCorp Industries stumbled 1.05 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering accelerated 1.43 percent, SingTel retreated 1.04 percent, UOL Group rose 0.35 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.40 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 1.44 percent and Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, CapitaLand Investment and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages shook off a sluggish start on Friday, posting a mild recovery midday to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 54.34 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 42,270.07, while the NASDAQ slipped 62.11 points or 0.32 percent to close at 19,113.77 and the S&P 500 eased 0.48 points or 0.01 percent to end at 5,911.69.

The early selling pressure on Wall Street came after President Donald Trump accused China of violating the trade agreement reached last month.

But bargain hunters fueled the mild recovery later in the day.

In U.S. economic news, a closely watched report release by the Commerce Department showed consumer prices in the U.S. crept slightly higher in April.

Crude suffered a weekly loss of more than 1 percent due to uncertainty over Trump's tariffs and their likely impact on global growth and fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery eased $0.18 or 0.30 percent to $60.76 a barrel.