Rebound Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the four-day slide in which it had slumped more than 50 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,265-point plateau although it figures to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on solid economic and earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished slightly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and industrial issues, while the properties were mixed.

For the day, the index eased 2.55 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 3,266.63 after trading between 3,258.65 and 3,271.15.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT gained 0.70 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust collected 0.48 percent, CapitaLand Investment jumped 1.61 percent, City Developments eased 0.14 percent, DBS Group shed 0.72 percent, Hongkong Land added 0.92 percent, Keppel Corp dropped 0.77 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Yangzijiang Financial both rallied 1.32 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 1.01 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rose 0.57 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was down 0.16 percent, SATS climbed 1.15 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering lost 0.55 percent, United Overseas Bank slid 0.21 percent, Wilmar International was up 0.26 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.78 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore, SingTel, Thai Beverage and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained solidly in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow surged 546.68 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 33,674.38, while the NASDAQ rallied 269.01 points or 2.25 percent to end at 12,235.41 and the S&P 500 jumped 75.03 points or 1.85 percent to close at 4,136.25. For the week, the NASDAQ rose 0.1 percent, the S&P slid 0.8 percent and the Dow fell 1.2 percent.

The rally on Wall Street partly reflected bargain hunting, as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness.

Regional banks helped lead the recovery after ongoing concerns about turmoil in the sector weighed on the markets in recent sessions, while strong quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL) fueled gains on the NASDAQ.

Traders also reacted to the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for April, which showed that job growth far exceeded estimates and the unemployment rate ticked lower.

Crude oil prices rose sharply on Friday on easing recession concerns in some of the world's major economies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $2.78 or 4.1 percent at $71.34 a barrel but was down more than 7 percent for the week.