Bargain Hunting Likely To Lift Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, giving away almost 115 points or 3 percent along the way. The Straits Tines Index now rests just above the 3,770-point plateau although it figures to stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive as U.S. inflation data eased concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets finished solidly higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and industrials.

For the day, the index lost 16.19 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 3,772.58 after trading between 3,765.41 and 3,796.63.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment jumped 1.63 percent, while City Developments rose 0.20 percent, Comfort DelGro plunged 2.08 percent, DBS Group slumped 0.91 percent, Genting Singapore surged 2.04 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.42 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.47 percent, Keppel Ltd lost 0.44 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust advanced 0.80 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.30 percent, Seatrium Limited gained 0.46 percent, SembCorp Industries dipped 0.18 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering spiked 1.94 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 0.93 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.65 percent, Yangzijiang Financial stumbled 1.19 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.58 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Emperador, SingTel, SATS, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened firmly higher and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow surged 703.27 points or 1.65 percent to finish at 43,221.55, while the NASDAQ rallied 466.84 points or 2.45 percent to close at 19,511.23 and the S&P 500 jumped 107.00 points or 1.83 percent to end at 5,949.91.

The rally on Wall Street was a positive reaction to the Labor Department's closely watched report on consumer price inflation in December. While the report showed consumer prices rose slightly more than expected in December, the annual rate of core consumer price growth unexpectedly slowed.

Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to upbeat earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C).

Oil prices spiked Wednesday as crude inventories in the U.S. dropped last week, while possible supply disruptions due to new sanctions against Russia also supported prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February rose $2.54 or 3.3 percent at $80.04 a barrel.