Singapore Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Monday, one session after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 50 points or 1.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,235-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity with the outlook for interest rates shrouded in uncertainty. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the property stocks and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial issues.

For the day, the index gained 10.88 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 3,234.89 after trading between 3,222.32 and 3,251.15.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust advanced 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment jumped 0.75 percent, Comfort DelGro accelerated 1.43 percent, DBS Group fell 0.33 percent, Genting Singapore spiked 2.26 percent, Hongkong Land strengthened 0.65 percent, Keppel DC REIT climbed 0.58 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.27 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 2.34 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rallied 1.37 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.52 percent, SATS shed 0.38 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 10.13 percent, SembCorp Industries slumped 0.56 percent, SingTel gained 0.40 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 3.13 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.52 percent and City Developments, Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, Emperador, Singapore Technologies Engineering and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but spent most of the day in the red, although the NASDAQ ticked back up into the green by the session's end.

The Dow slumped 240.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 39,566.85, while the NASDAQ added 17.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 16,396.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 5,243.77.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders finally had an opportunity to react to last Friday's closely watched U.S. consumer price inflation data, which largely matched expectations.

Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders expressed uncertainty about whether inflation is slowing quickly enough to guarantee the interest rate cuts expected by the Federal Reserve.

The subsequent pullback by stocks came as a report from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly showing modest growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in March contributed to a jump by Treasury yields.

Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about a possible drop in supplies following reports of an Israeli strike near the Iranian embassy in Damascus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.54 or 0.65 percent at $83.71 a barrel.