Singapore Bourse May Take Further Damage On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, sinking almost 20 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3m240-point plateau and it's poised to open in the red again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on trade concerns emanating from protests in China. The European and U.S. markets were solidly in the red and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished slightly lower on Monday following mixed performances from the financials, properties and industrials.

For the day, the index dipped 4.49 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 3,240.06 after trading between 3,221.89 and 3,248.69. Volume was 1 billion shares worth 889.4 million Singapore dollars. There were 316 decliners and 234 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust both jumped 1.48 percent, while CapitaLand Investment tumbled 1.38 percent, City Developments dropped 0.61 percent, Comfort DelGro slumped 0.81 percent, DBS Group skidded 0.86 percent, Emperador retreated 1.03 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 2.24 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust declined 1.18 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation added 0.49 percent, SATS fell 0.37 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.62 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 2.46 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.17 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 2.86 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 1.40 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Keppel Corp, Keppel DC REIT, Genting Singapore, Singapore Technologies Engineering and SingTel were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is bleak as the major averages opened lower on Monday and the losses accelerated as the day progressed, closing near session lows.

The Dow plunged 497.57 points or 1.45 percent to finish at 33,849.46, while the NASDAQ tumbled 176.86 points or 1.58 percent to close at 11,049.50 and the S&P 500 slumped 62.18 points or 1.54 percent to end at 3,963.94.

Concerns about developments in China fueled the substantial pullback on Wall Street, as widespread protests against the Beijing's zero-Covid restriction policy broke out over the weekend.

The weakness on Wall Street may also have reflected lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next month's Federal Reserve meeting.

While the Fed is widely expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes next month, the minutes of the central bank's early November meeting suggested some officials think rates will be to be raised higher than previously anticipated.

Crude oil prices shook off early weakness and moved higher on Monday amid speculation that OPEC will seriously consider a new production cut at its meeting later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January gained $0.96 or 1.3 percent at $77.24 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide annual October data for import, export and producer prices later today. In September, import prices were up 8.8 percent, export prices jumped 10.0 percent and producer prices climbed 12.7 percent.