Singapore Shares Due For Profit Taking On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in six straight sessions, collecting more than 115 points or 4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,180-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and fairly flat, with many of the regional bourses due for profit taking after big recent gains. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished sharply higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks, REITs and industrials. For the day, the index jumped 36.87 points or 1.17 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,180.53 after moving as low as 3,153.63.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT rallied 1.85 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 1.09 percent, CapitaLand Investment spiked 1.95 percent, City Developments soared 2.48 percent, Comfort DelGro was up 0.76 percent, DBS Group climbed 1.38 percent, DFI Retail skyrocketed 5.26 percent, Genting Singapore gained 1.14 percent, Hongkong Land and Frasers Logistics both gathered 0.90 percent, Keppel Corp advanced 1.25 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust picked up 0.74 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust improved 1.37 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust surged 2.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 1.08 percent, SATS added 1.19 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.65 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering sank 0.77 percent, SingTel perked 0.82 percent, Thai Beverage accelerated 1.87 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.27 percent, Yangzijiang Financial strengthened 1.54 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding increased 1.32 percent and Emperador and Seatrium Limited were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests very mild upside as the major averages opened higher on Monday, slipped into the red late but managed to finish just above the unchanged line by the close.

The Dow rose 34.54 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 34,095.86, while the NASDAQ gained 40.50 points or 0.30 percent to close at 13,518.78 and the S&P 500 roe 7.64 points or 0.18 percent to end at 4,365.98.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders continued to express optimism about the outlook for interest rates. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement last Wednesday combined with softer than expected jobs data last Friday has led to optimism that the central bank is done raising interest rates.

Treasuries showed a significant pullback during trading on Monday after moving sharply higher over the past few sessions. Bond prices came under pressure early in the session and saw further downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 10.4 basis points to 4.662 percent.

A late round of profit taking following recent gains sent markets briefly into the red before a mild recovery.

Oil futures settled higher on Monday after Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed that they will extend their voluntary production and supply cuts to the end of the year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.31 or 0.4 percent at $80.82 a barrel.