Mild Upside Seen For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had risen more than 25 points or 0.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,875-point plateau and it figures to remain rangebound again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on the outlook for trade. The European and U.S. markets were slightly higher and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 21.67 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 3,876.20 after trading between 3,873.89 and 3,903.16.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT plunged 1.90 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust fell 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Investment retreated 1.17 percent, City Developments dropped 0.84 percent, DBS Group shed 0.67 percent, Genting Singapore sank 0.70 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.54 percent, Keppel Ltd slumped 1.04 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust stumbled 1.65 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust surrendered 1.53 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust cratered 1.80 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 0.55 percent, SATS and Singapore Technologies Engineering both added 0.67, Seatrium Limited skidded 0.97 percent, SembCorp Industries eased 0.15 percent Percent, SingTel slid 0.26 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.05 percent, Wilmar International tumbled 1.29 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 5.26 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding crashed 1.82 percent and Keppel DC REIT and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is slightly positive as the major averages spent most of Monday in the red before a late pushed them up and barely over the unchanged line.

The Dow climbed 137.33 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 42,792.07, while the NASDAQ rose 4.36 points or 0.02 percent to close at 19,215.46 and the S&P 500 perked 5.22 points or 0.09 percent to end at 5,963.60.

The initial weakness on Wall Street came in reaction to news that Moody's has downgraded the U.S. debt rating by a notch to Aa1 from Aaa.

Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders seem to remain generally optimistic about the outlook for the markets.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators slumped by more than expected in the month of April.

Crude oil prices saw mild upside on Monday after Goldman Sachs raised its outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose $0.17 of 0.27 percent to $62.66 per barrel.