Singapore Bourse Likely To Cling To The 3,200-Point Line

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,200-point plateau and it's got a fairly flat lead for Wednesday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement amidst a lack of catalysts and ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were closed for the Independence Day holiday and the Asian markets figure to see a steady start.

The STI finished slightly lower on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks, industrial issues and REITs.

For the day, the index eased 3.33 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 3,203.77 after trading between 3,197.01 and 3,209.23.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.52 percent, while CapitaLand Investment perked 0.30 percent, DBS Group lost 0.29 percent, Emperador advanced 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 0.53 percent, Keppel Corp and Mapletree Industrial Trust both rose 0.45 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust added 0.61 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.32 percent, SATS gathered 0.39 percent, Seatrium Limited retreated 0.80 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.70 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was up 0.27 percent, SingTel rallied 1.59 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.75 percent, Wilmar International tumbled 2.65 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding declined 1.37 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Hongkong Land, Yangzijiang Financial, City Developments, Comfort DelGro and Ascendas REIT were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street, although the European markets saw mild consolidation on disappointing economic data, while Canadian shares ticked slightly higher on gains from energy companies.

Traders will look to the minutes of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later today, along with the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Recent data has pointed to a resilient U.S. economy, while slowing inflation has added to optimism about the outlook for interest rates. The Fed is still widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point later this month, but traders are hopeful that will be end of the rate-hiking cycle.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide May numbers for retail sales later today, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.1 percent on month and 4.0 percent on year. That follows the 0.3 percent monthly increase and the 3.6 percent annual gain in April.