Singapore Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, gathering more than 50 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 4,210-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on renewed tariff concerns. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index improved 11.35 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 4,208.58 after trading between 4,204.64 and 4,222.25.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT stumbled 1.79 percent, while CapitaLand Investment slumped 1.07 percent, City Developments dropped 0.80 percent, Comfort DelGro jumped 1.97 percent, DBS Group added 0.73 percent, DFI Retail Group strengthened 1.45 percent, Keppel DC REIT lost 0.43 percent, Keppel Ltd improved 0.84 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust shed 0.50 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust skidded 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.47 percent, SATS climbed 1.26 percent, Seatrium Limited gained 0.43 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.26 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering advanced 1.02 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 2.17 percent, Wilmar International rose 0.34 percent, Yangzijiang Financial sank 0.52 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, United Overseas Bank, UOL Group, Genting Singapore, Hongkong Land, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, SingTel and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Tuesday but quickly turned lower and spent the balance of the day in the red, closing near session lows.

The Dow slipped 61.90 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 44,111.74, while the NASDAQ sank 137.03 points or 0.65 percent to end at 20,916.55 and the S&P 500 dropped 30.75 points or 0.49 percent to close at 6,299.19.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street reflected ongoing trade concerns after President Donald Trump said he will be announcing new tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week. Trump said planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. could reach as high as 250 percent.

Negative sentiment was also have been generated by a report from the Institute for Supply Management that unexpectedly showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth by U.S. service sector activity in the month of July.

Early in the session, stocks benefitted from a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news, including upbeat quarterly results from software company Palantir (PLTR).

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday amid US pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, as well as OPEC's recent decision to boost production. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery slumped $1.05 or 1.58 percent to $65.24 per barrel.