Singapore Shares May End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slipping almost 15 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,280-point plateau although it's likely to find support on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on upbeat inflation data and support from the oil and technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished slightly lower on Friday as losses from the financials and industrials were tempered by support from the financial sector.

For the day, the index slipped 7.65 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 3,280.10 after trading between 3,271.58 and 3,297.80.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.51 percent, CapitaLand Investment rose 0.38 percent, City Developments added 0.66 percent, DBS Group eased 0.09 percent, Emperador retreated 1.12 percent, Hongkong Land gained 0.64 percent, Keppel DC REIT tumbled 1.16 percent, Keppel Ltd slid 0.29 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.74 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 0.42 percent, SATS advanced 0.80 percent, Seatrium Limited climbed 1.14 percent, SembCorp Industries dipped 0.18 percent, SingTel fell 0.41 percent, Thai Beverage stumbled 1.04 percent, Wilmar International declined 0.86 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.57 percent and Comfort DelGro, Mapletree Pan Asia, Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Yangzijiang Financial, Genting Singapore and DFI Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow climbed 153.86 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,239.66, while the NASDAQ surged 316.10 points or 2.02 percent to end at 15,927.90 and the S&P 500 rallied 51.54 points or 1.02 percent to close at 5.099.96.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.2 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.7 percent and the Dow added 0.7 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came amid a positive reaction to some of the latest earnings news from big-name tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), software giant Microsoft (MSFT) and Snap (SNAP).

Traders also reacted positively to closely watched readings on inflation released by the Commerce Department showing consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in March.

Treasury yields moved lower following the release of the report, which may have helped mitigate any negative response to the data.

Oil prices edged higher on Friday on optimism about the outlook for oil demand and concerns about supply. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.28 or 0.34 percent at $83.85 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 0.85 percent in the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q1 figures for unemployment later today; in the three months prior, the jobless rate was 2.0 percent.