Soft Start Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in five straight sessions, sinking almost 30 points or 0.9 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,190-point plateau and it's tipped to open under pressure again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with profit taking expected ahead of key jobs data from the United States later in the week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index slid 7.66 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 3,187.56 after trading between 3,186.17 and 3,203.90.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT sank 0.74 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust fell 0.50 percent, CapitaLand Investment retreated 0.87 percent, City Developments rose 0.29 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 0.89 percent, DBS Group and Mapletree Industrial Trust both slid 0.44 percent, Hongkong Land dipped 0.23 percent, Keppel Corp shed 0.63 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust added 0.61 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.08 percent, SATS plummeted 4.36 percent, SembCorp Industries weakened 0.20 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering lost 0.53 percent, SingTel rallied 1.21 percent, Thai Beverage declined 0.88 percent, United Overseas Bank was down 0.14 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.75 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.47 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding skidded 0.79 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is not encouraging as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday but started to trend lower as the day progressed, with the Dow finishing in the red.

The Dow shed 50.56 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 33,042.78, while the NASDAQ rose 41.74 points or 0.32 percent to close at 13,017.43 and the S&P 500 perked 0.07 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,205.52.

The early strength on Wall Street materialized on the weekend's news that an agreement had been reached to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a disastrous default by the U.S. government.

Much of that had already been priced in, however, and stocks faded ahead of Friday's jobs report amid concerns about further interest rate hikes.

In economic news, the Conference Board said consumer confidence in the U.S. saw a modest decrease from an upwardly revised level in May.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, weighed down by doubts about China's economic recovery and uncertainty over whether the Congress will pass the debt deal this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended down $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $69.46 a barrel.