Singapore Stock Market May See Additional Support

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 120 points or 3.5 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,400-point plateau and it may add to its winnings again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to higher ahead of this week's FOMC meeting. The European and U.S. markets saw mild upside and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financials, properties and trusts.

For the day, the index gained 17.02 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 3,394.21 after trading between 3,379.15 and 3,395.79.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT rose 0.69 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gathered 0.47 percent, CapitaLand Investment and DBS Group both gained 0.76 percent, City Developments advanced 0.86 percent, Emperador dropped 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore skidded 1.00 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.23 percent, Keppel Corp perked 0.40 percent, Keppel DC REIT surged 2.96 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust soared 2.22 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust spiked 1.67 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 1.16 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.46 percent, SATS slumped 1.30 percent, SembCorp Industries rallied 1.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering improved 0.81 percent, SingTel added 0.79 percent, Thai Beverage retreated 1.39 percent, United Overseas Bank was up 0.20 percent, Wilmar International sank 0.73 percent, Yangzijiang Financial declined 1.28 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tumbled 1.57 percent and Comfort DelGro, UOL Group and DFI Retail were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be positive as the major averages shook off early listlessness to move into the green in afternoon trade.

The Dow added 28.68 points or 0.08 percent to finish at 33,978.08, while the NASDAQ jumped 109.31 points or 0.95 percent to end at 11,621.71 and the S&P 500 rose 10.13 points or 0.25 percent to close at 4,070.56.

For the week, the NASDAQ soared 4.3 percent, the S&P 500 surged 2.5 percent and the Dow jumped 1.8 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy meeting this week. The Fed is widely expected to slow the pace of interest rate hikes to 25 basis points, but traders will look to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for further rate hikes.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said personal income increased in line with estimates in December, while personal spending eased in line with expectations. The report also said core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, rose more than expected.

A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected rebound in pending home sales in December, while the University of Michigan upwardly revised its reading on consumer sentiment in January.

Crude oil prices fell Friday amid uncertainty about the outlook for oil demand. Profit taking after recent gains and indications that oil supply from Russia will surge also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for March sank $1.33 or 1.6 percent at $79.68 a barrel. WTI crude futures shed 2.4 percent in the week.