Little Movement Expected For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, falling more than 40 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,230-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amid a cloudy outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly lower again on Friday following losses from the properties, while the financials and industrials were mixed.

For the day, the index slipped 25.99 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 4,230.53 after trading between 4,210.51 and 4,246.10.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Investment and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust all skidded 0.74 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Frasers Centrepoint Trust both sank 0.45 percent, City Developments tanked 1.75 percent, Comfort DelGro improved 0.65 percent, DBS Group tumbled 1.17 percent, DFI Retail Group gained 0.28 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 0.67 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.12 percent, Keppel DC REIT was up 0.43 percent, Keppel Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation both lost 0.12 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust dropped 0.50 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust and Seatrium Limited both slumped 0.86 percent, SATS stumbled 1.21 percent, SembCorp Industries plunged 1.91 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 0.71 percent, SingTel rallied 0.74 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.05 percent, United Overseas Bank plummeted 2.81 percent, UOL Group shed 0.41 percent, Wilmar International added 0.34 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 3.92 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 1.04 percent and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session, ending on opposite sides of the unchanged line.

The Dow added 34.82 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 44,946.12, while the NASDAQ sank 87.72 points or 0.40 percent to close at 21,622.98 and the S&P 500 fell 18.74 points or 0.29 percent to end at 6,449.80. For the week, the NASDAQ added 0.8 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the Dow jumped 1.7 percent.

The weakness in the broader markets followed the release of mixed batch of U.S. economic data, which has led to some uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.

While the Commerce Department said retail sales increased in line with estimates in July, the University of Michigan noted an unexpected deterioration in consumer sentiment in August.

On the inflation front, year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.9 percent in August from 4.5 in July, while the Labor Department said import prices increased more than expected last month and the Federal Reserve saw a slight pullback by industrial production in July.

Crude oil traded lower on Friday ahead of the meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Russia, which ultimately accomplished nothing. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.20 or 1.88 percent at $62.76 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release July figures for non-oil domestic exports later this morning. In June, NODX was up 14.3 percent on month and 13.0 percent on year.