Singapore Shares May Head South Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day losing streak in which it had fallen more than 35 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,380-point plateau although it figures to see renewed consolidation on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financials and REITs and mixed performances from the property stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index gained 20.61 points or 0.61 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,384.29 after moving as low as 3,358.46.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT soared 2.04 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 0.47 percent, CapitaLand Investment gained 0.50 percent, City Developments added 0.36 percent, DBS Group rallied 1.20 percent, Hongkong Land dipped 0.20 percent, Keppel Corp plummeted 5.10 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust climbed 0.55 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust jumped 1.26 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust surged 2.33 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.93 percent, SATS tumbled 1.59 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.56 percent, SingTel fell 0.39 percent, Thai Beverage retreated 1.42 percent, United Overseas Bank spiked 1.79 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.74 percent and Yangzijiang Financial, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Emperador, Genting Singapore, Comfort DelGro and Singapore Technologies Engineering were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Friday, rallied midday but sank into the red by the close.

The Dow tumbled 127.89 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 33,926.01, while the NASDAQ plunged 193.84 points or 1.59 percent to close at 12,006.96 and the S&P 500 sank 43.28 points or 1.04 percent to end at 4,136.48.

For the week, the NASDAQ surged 3.3 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 1.6 percent and the Dow dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of much stronger than expected jobs data.

While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, the data has led to concerns the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates higher than currently anticipated.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for fuel demand, with investors weighing the prospects of a recession - while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $2.49 or 3.3 percent at $73.39 a barrel.