Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in three straight sessions, collecting almost 50 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,185-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the industrials and mixed performances from the financial shares and property stocks.

For the day, the index improved 25.68 points or 0.81 percent to finish at 3,186.40 after trading between 3,162.63 and 3,190.21.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gathered 0.52 percent, while CapitaLand Investment added 0.74 percent, City Developments advanced 0.84 percent, DBS Group soared 2.03 percent, Emperador plummeted 6.52 percent, Hongkong Land slumped 1.53 percent, Keppel DC REIT jumped 1.19 percent, Keppel Ltd spiked 1.96 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust gained 0.68 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.83 percent, SATS improved 0.39 percent, Seatrium Limited tumbled 2.13 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 2.84 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was up 0.25 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 1.00 percent, Wilmar International climbed 0.89 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rose 0.57 percent and Ascendas REIT, Comfort DelGro, SingTel, DFI Retail, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Frasers Logistics, Yangzijiang Financial and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened slightly higher on Thursday but quickly headed south and stayed modestly lower for the rest of the day.

The Dow dropped 137.66 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 28,905.66, while the NASDAQ sank 49.24 points or 0.30 percent to close at 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 fell 14.83 points or 0.29 percent to end at 5,150.48.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the Federal Reserve further postponing its first interest rate cut following the release of hotter-than-expected producer price inflation data for February.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing retail sales rebounded in February, although the increase fell short of estimates.

Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, extending gains from the previous day as the International Energy Agency (IEA) upwardly raised its global demand growth forecast. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April ended higher by $1.54 or 1.9 percent at $81.26 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q1 numbers for unemployment later today, with forecasts pinning the jobless rate at 2.0 percent - steady from the three month prior.