Singapore Stock Market May Hand Back Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 30 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,810-point plateau although it figures to turn lower again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index added 16.45 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 3,809.27 after trading between 3,785.36 and 3,812.36.

Among the actives, City Developments fell 0.19 percent, while DBS Group collected 0.27 percent, Emperador rallied 1.20 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.65 percent, Hongkong Land advanced 1.09 percent, Keppel DC REIT gained 0.46 percent, Keppel Ltd spiked 1.47 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 0.82 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation improved 1.02 percent, SATS tumbled 1.61 percent, Seatrium Limited retreated 1.48 percent, SembCorp Industries lost 0.53 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 1.12 percent, SingTel rose 0.33 percent, Thai Beverage dropped 0.87 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.65 percent, Yangzijiang Financial slumped 1.23 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 2.18 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Investment, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Comfort DelGro and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly headed south and remained in the red for the balance of day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 234.44 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 43,914.12, while the NASDAQ sank 132.05 points or 0.66 percent to close at 19,769.84 and the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points or 0.54 percent to end at 6,051.25.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on the strong performance seen on Wednesday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed above 20,000 for the first time ever.

Some negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.

While the Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower interest rates next week, the data has raised some concerns about how quickly the central bank will cut rates early next year.

Oil futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains after the International Energy Agency's forecast that the oil market will see excess supply next year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $70.02 a barrel.