Soft Start Anticipated For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one day after snapping the six-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 70 points or 2.3 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,230-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets are expected to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly higher following gains from the financials, weakness from the industrials and a mixed picture from the property stocks.

For the day, the index added 13.08 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 3,233.30 after trading between 3,216.52 and 3,239.15.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT dropped 0.72 percent, while CapitaLand Investment soared 3.18 percent, City Developments sank 0.60 percent, Comfort DelGro slumped 0.78 percent, DBS Group gained 0.45 percent, Emperador climbed 0.99 percent, Genting Singapore skidded 1.13 percent, Keppel Corp jumped 1.31 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.64 percent, SATS rallied 2.37 percent, Seatrium Limited added 0.69 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 2.01 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.80 percent, SingTel advanced 0.85 percent, Thai Beverage declined 1.72 percent, Wilmar International surged 4.71 percent, Yangzijiang Financial spiked 2.82 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.31 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Hongkong Land, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, DFI Retail and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher but faded as the day progressed, ending on opposite side of the unchanged line.

The Dow sank 168.33 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 34,721.91, while the NASDAQ added 15.66 points or 0.11 percent to close at 14,034.97 and the S&P 500 eased 7.21 points or 0.16 percent to end at 4,507.66.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to a Commerce Department report showing consumer price growth in the U.S. accelerated in line with forecasts in July.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched jobs report later today.

Crude oil moved sharply higher on Thursday, advancing for the sixth consecutive session following another steep drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate for October delivery surged $2 or 2.5 percent to $83.63 a barrel, a three-week closing high.