Singapore Bourse Likely To Give Up Support At 3,300 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 70 points or 2.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,300-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start for Friday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is slightly soft ahead of key U.S. employment data later today. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financials and properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index lost 20.96 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 3,304.06 after trading between 3,300.07 and 3,330.43.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT tumbled 1.77 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust slid 0.50 percent, CapitaLand Investment skidded 1.19 percent, City Developments lost 0.68 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.79 percent, DBS Group eased 0.24 percent, Emperador climbed 0.97 percent, Genting Singapore fell 0.54 percent, Hongkong Land sank 0.83 percent, Keppel Corp rose 0.28 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 1.23 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.45 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dropped 1.14 percent, SATS shed 0.73 percent, Seatrium Limited retreated 1.47 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.27 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was down 0.27 percent, SingTel plunged 3.02 percent, Wilmar International added 0.52 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 3.08 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding declined 1.27 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Thai Beverage, Frasers Logistics and Keppel DC REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower on Thursday, rallied midday but sank back into the red heading into the close.

The Dow shed 66.63 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 35,215.89, while the NASDAQ dipped 13.73 points or 0.10 percent to close at 13,858.71 and the S&P 500 fell 11.50 points or 0.25 percent to end at 4,501.89.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected continued concerns about U.S. debt after credit rating agency Fitch Ratings unexpectedly downgraded the United States' credit rating earlier this week.

Selling pressure remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week. Also, the Institute for Supply Management reported a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in July.

Crude oil prices climbed higher Thursday after Saudi Arabia announced that it would extend its production cut to next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September climbed $2.06 or 2.6 percent at $81.66 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release June figures for retail sales later today. Sales are expected to be flat on month and rise 2.7 percent on year after slipping 0.2 percent on month and adding 1.8 percent on year in May.