Singapore Bourse May Give Up Support At 4,400 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market turned lower again on Tuesday, one day after ending the three-day slide in which it had slipped more than 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,420-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns that technology shares may be over bought. The European and U.S. markets were firmly under water and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday as the financial shares, property stocks and industrials ended mostly in the red.

For the day, the index sank 21.61 points or 0.49 percent to finish at 4,422.72 after trading between 4,413.98 and 4,450.41.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Industrial Trust both contracted 1.41 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.85 percent, City Developments slumped 1.53 percent, Comfort DelGro stumbled 2.03 percent, DBS Group fell 0.54 percent, DFI Retail Group rallied 1.76 percent, Hongkong Land surrendered 1.77 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.42 percent, Keppel Ltd declined 1.56 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust lost 0.68 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tanked 2.22 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was down 0.23 percent, SATS retreated 1.71 percent, Seatrium Limited skidded 1.36 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 3.34 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 1.17 percent, SingTel slipped 0.47 percent, Thai Beverage sank 1.05 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.20 percent, UOL Group eased 0.12 percent, Wilmar International jumped 1.89 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.85 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.56 percent and CapitaLand Investment and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 251.44 points of 0.53 percent to finish at 47,085.24, while the NASDAQ plummeted 486.09 points or 2.04 percent to close at 23,348.64 and the S&P 500 sank 80.42 points or 1.17 percent to end at 6,771.55.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the valuations of tech stocks, which have helped lead the markets to record highs amid optimism about artificial intelligence.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon warned of a significant correction by the equity markets over the next 1-2 years.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Tuesday due to excess supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.44 or 0.72 percent at $60.61 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide September figures for retail sales later today; in August, sales were up 0.5 percent on month and 5.2 percent on year.