Singapore Stock Market Expected To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the four-day slide in which it had slumped more than 50 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,270-point plateau although it's likely to head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the health of the financial system and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are predicted to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the industrials, while the financials and properties were mixed.

For the day, the index rose 7.17 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 3,269.18 after trading between 3,249.39 and 3,269.36.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT jumped 1.07 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment gathered 0.27 percent, City Developments rose 0.32 percent, Comfort DelGro climbed 0.82 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.25 percent, Genting Singapore surged 1.85 percent, Keppel Corp soared 1.56 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust rallied 0.86 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust spiked 1.16 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.32 percent, SATS lost 0.76 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.66 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.55 percent, SingTel improved 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage sank 0.79 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.04 percent, Wilmar International increased 0.52 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.79 percent and Emperador, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Hongkong Land, Yangzijiang Financial and DFI Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 286.50 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 33,127.74, while the NASDAQ dropped 58.93 points or 0.49 percent to close at 11,966.40 and the S&P 500 sank 29.53 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,061.22.

The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflects ongoing concerns about turmoil among regional banks after lenders PacWest Bancorp (PACW) and First Horizon (FHN) said they were reviewing their options.

Continued uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also weighed following the Federal Reserve's tenth straight rate hike on Wednesday. While the Fed's accompanying statement seemed to suggest the central bank plans to pause its rate hiking cycle, Fed Chair Jerome Powell clouded the outlook with a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.

Crude oil futures pared early losses and settled just slightly lower on Thursday, due largely to some short-covering and speculative buying. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $0.04 at $68.56 a barrel, recovering well from a low of $63.57 a barrel.