Singapore Stock Market May See Renewed Selling Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday halted the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 25 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,085-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week, while slumping oil prices also may weigh. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index gained 10.08 points or 0.33 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,087.24 after moving as low as 3,067.42.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gathered 0.53 percent, while CapitaLand Investment jumped 1.32 percent, City Developments sank 0.33 percent, Comfort DelGro surged 3.08 percent, DBS Group perked 0.13 percent, Emperador slumped 0.96 percent, Genting Singapore improved 1.09 percent, Hongkong Land soared 2.50 percent, Keppel Corp added 0.89 percent, Keppel DC REIT rallied 2.08 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Jardine Matheson both spiked 2.19 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust dropped 0.87 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust gained 0.62 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.08 percent, SATS climbed 1.13 percent, Seatrium Limited increased 0.99 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.20 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.54 percent, SingTel strengthened 1.30 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 1.01 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.28 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding retreated 1.32 percent and Ascendas REIT, Yangzijiang Financial and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major average opened higher on Wednesday but couldn't hold the gains and eventually finished under water.

The Dow dropped 70.13 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 36,054.43, while the NASDAQ sank 83.20 points or 0.58 percent to end at 14,146.71 and the S&P 500 lost 17.84 points or 0.39 percent to close at 4,549.34.

The early strength on Wall Street followed the release of a report from payroll processor ADP showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by less than expected in November.

The weaker than expected private sector job growth added to recent optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.

However, stocks retreated as traders chose to lighten commitments due to concerns about possible overbought conditions in the market ahead of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, extending losses to a fifth straight day after data showed a large increase in gasoline inventories in the U.S. last week, raising concerns about the outlook for fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January sank $2.94 or 4.1 percent at $69.38 a barrel.