Singapore Shares Overdue For Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in 10 straight sessions, improving more than 170 points or 4.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 4,190-point plateau although it's likely to see profit taking on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly directionless amidst a lack of catalysts, with oil and biotechnology stocks likely to fall under pressure. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher again on Friday following gains from the financial shares and industrial issues, while the property sector was mixed.

For the day, the index gained 28.07 points or 0.67 percent to finish at 4,189.50 after trading between 4,164.25 and 4,192.19.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT slumped 0.72 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.46 percent, CapitaLand Investment climbed 0.73 percent, City Developments added 0.51 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.69 percent, DBS Group improved 0.66 percent, DFI Retail Group picked up 0.32 percent, Genting Singapore sank 0.68 percent, Hongkong Land stumbled 1.11 percent, Keppel DC REIT accelerated 1.33 percent, Keppel Ltd gathered 0.25 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust strengthened 0.80 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation spiked 1.46 percent, SATS rose 0.31 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 5.78 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 0.91 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 0.24 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 1.06 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.60 percent, UOL Group was up 0.15 percent, Wilmar International soared 2.01 percent, Yangzijiang Financial increased 0.56 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 2.13 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, SingTel and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly turned lower before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 142.31 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 44,342.19, while the NASDAQ rose 10.06 points or 0.05 percent to close at 20,895.66 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,296.79.

For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.5 percent the S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent and the Dow dipped 0.1 percent.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street came on profit taking after the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs at the open.

The pullback came amid a slump by shares of Netflix (NFLX), after the company reported better than expected second quarter results but warned its operating margin in the second half will be lower than the first half.

Crude oil prices turned lower on Friday after OPEC's demand forecast prompted concerns of a production surplus. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed down by $0.20 at $67.34 per barrel.