Singapore Stock Market Likely Rangebound On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had rallied almost 110 points or 3.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just shy of the 3,220-point plateau and it figures to see little movement on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with a lack of direction over the 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 on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index dropped 26.95 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 3,217.11 after trading between 3,214.53 and 3,247.63.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT advanced 0.36 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 1.02 percent, CapitaLand Investment stumbled 1.71 percent, City Developments slid 0.33 percent, Comfort DelGro jumped 1.44 percent, DBS Group lost 0.64 percent, Genting Singapore plunged 3.77 percent, Hongkong Land spiked 2.15 percent, Keppel DC REIT skidded 1.14 percent, Keppel Ltd tumbled 1.76 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust declined 1.27 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust shed 0.66 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.52 percent, SATS tanked 2.94 percent, Seatrium Limited surged 3.09 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 5.68 percent, SingTel sank 0.84 percent, Wilmar International rallied 0.62 percent, Yangzijiang Financial retreated 1.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding slumped 1.18 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Thai Beverage and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and spent the vast majority of the session in the red, with only a late spurt lifting the Dow and S&P barely into the green.

The Dow added 48.44 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 38,612.24, while the NASDAQ lost 49.91 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,580.87 and the S&P 500 rose 6.29 points or 0.13 percent to end at 4,981.80.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates weighed on the markets for much of the session, with the major averages falling to their worst levels after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed most officials remain wary of cutting interest rates "too quickly."

However, the Fed said a couple of participants pointed to downside risks to the economy associated with maintaining an overly restrictive stance for too long. The late-day recovery may have reflected expectations the Fed will still eventually cut interest rates.

Oil prices rebounded from early losses and settled higher on Wednesday as concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East outweighed weak outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $0.87 or 1.1 percent at $77.91 a barrel.