Singapore Bourse Poised To Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in four straight sessions, collecting almost 40 points or 1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,935-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, thanks to upbeat employment data out of the United States. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were sharply higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index picked up 16.60 points or 0.42 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,934.29 after moving as low as 3,914.07.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 1.44 percent, while CapitaLand Investment advanced 0.79 percent, City Developments accelerated 1.74 percent, DBS Group rose 0.22 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 0.70 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 1.30 percent, Keppel DC REIT spiked 2.28 percent, Keppel Ltd soared 2.58 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust climbed 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gained 0.31 percent, Seatrium Limited increased 0.48 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 3.01 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dipped 0.13 percent, SingTel improved 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage strengthened 1.08 percent, Wilmar International added 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Financial collected 0.69 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding slumped 0.87 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, DFI Retail Group, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Comfort DelGro, SATS and CapitaLand Ascendas REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 443.13 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 42,762.87, while the NASDAQ rallied 231.50 points or 1.20 percent to close at 19,529.95 and the S&P 500 gained 61.06 points or 1.03 percent to end at 6,000.36.

The rally on Wall Street followed the release of the closely watched Labor Department report showing slightly stronger than expected U.S. job growth in May.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 139,000 jobs in May after jumping by a downwardly revised 147,000 jobs in April. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 130,000 jobs.

The modestly bigger than expected increase in employment helped offset concerns about the strength of the economy following some recent downbeat data.

Crude oil prices move higher on Friday in response to the better-than-expected jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was up $1.21 to $64.58 per barrel; it was up 6 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will provide Q1 numbers for unemployment later today, with forecasts pinning the jobless rate at 2.1 percent - up from 1.9 percent in the previous quarter.