Singapore Shares Due For Consolidation On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in six straight sessions, adding almost 155 points or 3.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,420-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with support from the technology shares likely to limit the downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly higher on Monday following gains from the financials, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index added 9.76 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 4,421.71 after trading between 4,411.88 and 4,423.09.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment sank 0.37 percent, while DBS Group added 0.64 percent, DFI Retail Group plunged 2.37 percent, Genting Singapore and Mapletree Pan Asia, Commercial Trust both dropped 0.68 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.22 percent, Keppel DC REIT slumped 0.83 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.44 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust tumbled 0.93 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rallied 0.78 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation perked 0.06 percent, SATS lost 0.28 percent, Seatrium Limited rose 0.41 percent, SembCorp Industries shed 0.32 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering surged 2.76 percent, SingTel retreated 0.94 percent, Thai Beverage stumbled 1.04 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.40 percent, UOL Group declined 0.87 percent, Wilmar International skidded 0.70 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 2.48 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 0.90 percent and CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, City Developments, Comfort DelGro and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and ultimately finished on opposite sides of the line and little changed,

The Dow shed 63.31 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 46,694.97, while the NASDAQ gained 161.16 points or 0.71 percent to end at a record 22,941.67 and the S&P 500 rose 24.49 points or 0.36 percent to close at 6,740.49, also a record.

The strength in the markets largely reflected a rally by semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index surging by 2.9 percent to a record closing high.

Significant strength was also visible among gold and software stocks, while housing and commercial real estate stocks moved notably lower over the course of the session.

Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing government shutdown, which entered its sixth day amid little signs of progress toward a deal on a temporary spending bill.

Crude oil prices surged on Monday as OPEC's output increase for November turned out to be lower than expected and relieved concerns of oversupply. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was up $0.73 or 1.20 percent at $61.61 per barrel.