Singapore Shares May Run Out Of Steam On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in consecutive trading days, accelerating more than 80 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,220-point plateau although investors may lock in gains on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are tipped to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished sharply higher on Wednesday with gains across the board, especially from the financials, industrials and trusts.

For the day, the index jumped 47.05 points or 1.48 percent to finish at 3,220.98 after trading between 3,189.65 and 3,228.61.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT strengthened 1.08 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 1.05 percent, CapitaLand Investment perked 0.28 percent, City Developments and SingTel both were up 0.42 percent, Comfort DelGro increased 0.85 percent, DBS Group spiked 1.79 percent, Emperador advanced 0.98 percent, Genting Singapore soared 1.87 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.66 percent, Keppel Corp rallied 1.69 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust surged 2.91 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.43 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust rose 0.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 1.31 percent, SATS added 0.81 percent, SembCorp Industries soared 1.72 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering improved 0.86 percent, Thai Beverage gained 0.79 percent, United Overseas Bank surged 2.86 percent, Wilmar International spiked 1.47 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 1.39 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding gathered 0.84 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and stayed that way until the FOMC announcement, which caused them to plummet.

The Dow plunged 530.49 points or 1.63 percent to finish at 32.030.11, while the NASDAQ tumbled 190.15 points or 1.60 percent to close at 11,669.96 and the S&P 500 sank 65.90 points or 1.65 percent to end at 3,936.97.

The late-day sell-off on Wall Street came after the Federal Reserve announced its decision to continue raising interest rates despite recent turmoil in the banking industry.

While the interest rate hike was widely expected, some traders may have been holding out hope the Fed would leave rates unchanged.

The central bank's latest projections suggest the Fed plans to raise rates just one more time this year to a range of 5.0 to 5.25 percent.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data showed that crude inventories rose by 1.117 million barrels last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May settled at $70.90 a barrel, gaining $1.23 or 1.8 percent.

Closer to home, Singapore will release February figures for consumer prices later today. Overall inflation is expected to rise 6.5 percent on year, easing from 6.6 percent in January. Core CPI is called higher by an annual 5.80 percent, up from 5.50 percent in the previous month.