Singapore Bourse May Halt Its Slide

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked lower in four straight sessions, sliding more than 50 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 4,220-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance, with support from oil and technology stocks likely to be offset by weakness from the property and transportation companies. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower again on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials were mixed.

For the day, the index shed 10.00 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 4,219.41 after trading between 4,202.25 and 4,234.77.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT jumped 1.42 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 1.36 percent, City Developments fell 0.32 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.62 percent, DBS Group skidded 0.70 percent, DFI Retail Group plunged 1.97 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 1.41 percent, Keppel DC REIT climbed 0.85 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.25 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 1.55 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.49 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 0.83 percent, SATS stumbled 1.52 percent, Seatrium Limited advanced 0.84 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 0.65 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.34 percent, SingTel slumped 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank declined 0.76 percent, Wilmar International lost 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 3.56 percent and Genting Singapore, Yangzijiang Financial, Thai Beverage, CapitaLand Investment, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and UOL Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Wednesday and hugged the line until the FOMC statement, ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow dropped 171.71 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 44,461.28, while the NASDAQ rose 31.38 points or 0.15 percent to close at 21,129.67 and the S&P 500 fell 7.96 points or 0.12 percent to end at 6,362.90.

The mixed closed by the major averages came after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged in a divided vote.

The decision to leave rates unchanged was not unanimous as Fed Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller preferred to lower rates by a quarter percentage point.

In economic news, payroll processor ADP said private sector employment in the U.S. increased more than expected in July. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy rebounded by more than expected in the second quarter of 2025.

Crude oil inched higher on Wednesday on hopes the U.S. can avoid a trade war, while the grace period was cut for Russia to avoid sanctions on its energy trades from 50 to 10 days. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery rose $0.82 or 1.18 percent at $70.02 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q2 numbers for unemployment later today; in the previous three months, the jobless rate was 2.0 percent.