Losses May Accelerate For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market headed south again, one day after snapping the four-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 115 points or 3.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,080-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with tech shares likely to weigh after disappointing earnings. 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 slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the property stocks and industrials, while the financial sector was mixed.

For the day, the index shed 5.10 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 3,078.78 after trading between 3,075.84 and 3,093.26.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT retreated 1.57 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 1.16 percent, CapitaLand Investment tumbled 1.63 percent, City Developments declined 1.58 percent, Genting Singapore surged 3.64 percent, Hongkong Land surrendered 2.21 percent, Keppel Corp 2.82 percent, Keppel DC REIT tanked 2.25 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust stumbled 1.52 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust slumped 1.37 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust skidded 1.34 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.55 percent, SATS lost 0.81 percent, Seatrium Limited sank 0.87 percent, SembCorp Industries was down 0.22 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slid 0.27 percent, SingTel fell 0.42 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 0.95 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.86 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 3.23 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Comfort DelGro, DBS Group and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but quickly headed south and finished near session lows.

The Dow dropped 105.45 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 33,035.93, while the NASDAQ plunged 318,65 points or 2.43 percent to close at 12,821,22 and the S&P 500 sank 60.91 points or 1.43 percent to end at 4,186.77.

The particularly steep drop by the NASDAQ reflected a negative reaction to quarterly results from Alphabet (GOOGL), with the Google parent plunging 9.5 percent after the company reported Q3 earnings that beat estimates but had weaker than expected revenue from its cloud business.

A renewed increase by treasury yields also weighed on the markets, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note spiking after ending the previous session little changed.

The surge by yields came as traders looked ahead to key economic data in the coming days, including a preliminary reading on third quarter GDP on Thursday and personal income on Friday.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak amid likely disruptions in supply due to the tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $1.65 or 1.97 percent at $85.39 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release September numbers for industrial production and Q3 data for unemployment later today. Industrial production is expected to jump 8.3 percent on month and fall 1.8 percent on year after slumping 10.5 percent on month and 12.1 percent on year in August. The jobless rate in Q2 was 1.9 percent.