Singapore Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Wednesday

(RTTNews) – The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last seven trading days since the end of the six-day winning streak in which it had jumped almost 75 points or 2.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,165-point plateau and now it’s expected to see little movement on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little guidance on a lack of catalysts. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financials.

For the day, the index shed 8.67 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 3,167.14 after trading between 3,157.32 and 3,181.36. Volume was 2.54 billion shares worth 1.18 billion Singapore dollars. There were 253 decliners and 247 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT fell 0.34 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 0.47 percent, City Developments sank 0.52 percent, Comfort DelGro declined 0.60 percent, Dairy Farm International retreated 0.68 percent, DBS Group skidded 1.02 percent, Keppel Corp tumbled 1.12 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust advanced 0.50 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.16 percent, SATS soared 1.00 percent, Singapore Airlines gained 0.41 percent, Singapore Exchange climbed 0.57 percent, Singapore Press Holdings surged 1.69 percent, Thai Beverage spiked 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.15 percent, Wilmar International added 0.42 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 0.68 percent and Genting Singapore, Jardine Cycle, Jardine Strategic Holdings, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Singapore Technologies Engineering, SembCorp Industries, SingTel and CapitaLand all were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is unclear as stocks spent Tuesday’s session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, finally settling mixed and little changed.

The Dow fell 30.42 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 34,599.82, while the NASDAQ gained 43.19 points or 0.31 percent to end at 13,924.91 and the S&P 500 rose 0.74 points or 0.02 percent to close at 4,227.26.

Despite optimism about economic growth amid the vaccine rollout, investors were reluctant to build up positions ahead of upcoming inflation data and concerns the Federal Reserve may start discussions on tapering its asset buying program.

Inflation data for May is due out on Thursday and may provide some cues on policy from the Federal Reserve – which is scheduled to meet next week.

Crude oil futures spiked on Tuesday on hopes that demand will continue to rise following reports that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid vaccines are effective against the Covid Delta variant. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up by $0.82 or 1.2 percent at $70.05 a barrel, the highest settlement since October 2018.