Singapore Stock Market May See Continued Consolidation

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the eight-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 175 points or 5.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,265-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with technology, semiconductor and oil stocks expected to weigh. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index shed 9.11 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 3,266.17 after trading between 3,258.49 and 3,282.91. Volume was 1.7 billion shares worth 1.5 billion Singapore dollars. There were 292 gainers and 271 decliners.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT fell 0.36 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment gained 0.28 percent, City Developments eased 0.12 percent, Comfort DelGro plummeted 5.38 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.31 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 1.40 percent, Keppel Corp added 0.69 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation shed 0.40 percent, SATS lost 0.37 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.02 percent, Singapore Exchange slumped 0.87 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering jumped 2.34 percent, SingTel climbed 0.72 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 0.53 percent, Wilmar International retreated 0.97 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tanked 2.74 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.96 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Genting Singapore, Thai Beverage and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 stayed in the red all day, while the Dow bounced back and forth across the unchanged line but also finished lower.

The Dow eased 39.09 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 33,553.83, while the NASDAQ tumbled 174.75 points or 1.54 percent to close at 11,183.66 and the S&P 500 sank 32.94 points or 0.83 percent to end at 3,958.79.

The weakness on Wall Street came as treasuries moved sharply higher, extending the upward move in the previous session and affecting technology stocks in particular.

In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a significant increase in U.S. retail sales in October. Also, the Federal Reserve noted an unexpected decline in U.S. industrial production last month. In addition, the National Association of Home Builders reported a continued decrease in U.S. homebuilder confidence in November.

Crude oil prices slipped Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and the resumption of Russian oil shipments to Hungary. Oil prices fell despite data showing a larger-than-expected drop in crude inventories in the U.S. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended lower by $1.33 or 1.5 percent at $85.59 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see October data for non-oil domestic exports later this morning, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 2.3 percent on month and 0.6 percent on year. That follows the 4.0 percent monthly decline and the 3.1 yearly increase in September, when the trade surplus was $5.750 billion.