Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Monday's holiday for Eid-ul-Adha, the Singapore stock market has ticked higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 30 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,130-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft ahead of quarterly earnings and on renewed pandemic concerns. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished barely higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index rose 1.86 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 3,131.26 after trading between 3,121.74 and 3,141.09. Volume was 1 billion shares worth 855.4 million Singapore dollars. There were 258 gainers and 183 decliners.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT advanced 0.69 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 0.96 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.26 percent, City Developments declined 0.76 percent, DBS Group slumped 0.43 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.42 percent, Keppel Corp was up 0.31 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust sank 0.55 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust added 0.57 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.44 percent, SATS soared 2.31 percent, SembCorp Industries spiked 1.76 percent, Singapore Exchange rallied 1.16 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.49 percent, SingTel rose 0.38 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 0.78 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.08 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.24 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 2.47 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 3.28 percent and Comfort DelGro, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Genting Singapore, Frasers Logistics and DFI Retail Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened firmly lower on Monday and largely remained that way throughout the session.

The Dow sank 164.31 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 31.173.84, while the NASDAQ plummeted 262.71 points or 2.26 percent to finish at 11,372.60 and the S&P 500 dropped 44.95 points or 1.15 percent to end at 3,854.43.

Renewed Covid concerns contributed to the weakness on Wall Street as Shanghai reported its first case of the highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub-variant, raising fears of more lockdowns.

Macau also closed all its casinos for the first time in over two years on Monday after a coronavirus outbreak in the world's biggest gambling hub.

Light trading activity may have exaggerated the downward move, as some traders stuck to the sidelines amid a lack of major U.S. economic data and corporate earnings.

Crude oil prices slipped Monday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amid a surge in coronavirus cases in China, while the dollar's jump amid expectations of sharp interest rate hikes also weighed on prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $0.70 or 0.7 percent at $104.90 a barrel.