Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in four straight sessions, rallying almost 110 points or 3.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just shy of the 3,245-point plateau although it's likely to see consolidation on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on continued profit taking and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and industrial issues, while the properties were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 18.15 points or 0.56 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,244.06 after moving as low as 3,219.52.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Singapore Technologies Engineering both gained 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment spiked 1.39 percent, City Developments and Mapletree Logistics Trust both sank 0.65 percent, DBS Group rose 0.12 percent, Emperador dropped 0.98 percent, Hongkong Land added 0.62 percent, Keppel Ltd increased 0.82 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust tumbled 1.42 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 0.90 percent, SATS lost 0.37 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 7.78 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.04 percent, SingTel improved 0.84 percent, Thai Beverage and UOL Group both rallied 0.98 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.31 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 3.13 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Comfort DelGro, Ascendas REIT, Keppel DC REIT and Genting Singapore were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and largely remained that way, finishing solidly in the red.

The Dow dropped 64.19 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 38,563.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.87 points or 0.92 percent to end at 15,630.78 and the S&P 500 sank 30.06 points or 0.60 percent to close at 4,975.51.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected ongoing anxiety about the outlook for interest rates following last week's hotter-than-expectation inflation data.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating just an 8.5 percent chance the Federal Reserve will lower rates by a quarter point in March, while the chances of a quarter point rate cut in early May have fallen to 33.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a strong gain by Walmart (WMT) helped limit the downside for the Dow, with the retail giant surging by 3.2 percent after reporting fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates and announcing a deal to acquire TV maker Vizio (VZIO) for $2.3 billion.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday, reflecting ongoing concerns about the outlook for demand. West Texas Intermediate for March delivery slumped $1.01 to $78.18 a barrel, while the more actively traded crude for April delivery tumbled $1.42 to $77.04 a barrel.