The Singapore stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 20 points or 0.7 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,120-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on interest rate and COVID-19 concerns, with oil and technology stocks again expected to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The STI finished barely higher on Tuesday following gains from the properties and mixed performances from the financial shares.
For the day, the index rose 1.14 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 3,121.09 after trading between 3,114.43 and 3,128.80. Volume was 1.15 billion shares worth 819.5 million Singapore dollars. There were 268 decliners and 176 gainers.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust jumped 0.90 percent, while City Developments climbed 0.85 percent, Comfort DelGro shed 0.72 percent, Dairy Farm International plummeted 2.03 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.64 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust added 0.49 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation rose 0.18 percent, SATS tumbled 0.77 percent, Singapore Airlines fell 0.60 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slid 0.53 percent, Thai Beverage dropped 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.34 percent, Wilmar International added 0.24 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.76 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Keppel Corp, DBS Group, Ascendas REIT, SembCorp Industries, Singapore Exchange, Singapore Press Holdings and SingTel were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages spent most of the day in the red, although they finished off session lows.
The Dow skidded 106.77 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,544.18, while the NASDAQ tumbled 175.64 points or 1.14 percent to end at 15,237.64 and the S&P 500 sank 34.88 points or 0.75 percent to close at 4,634.09.
Concerns about the outlook for monetary policy continued to weigh on the markets as the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting got underway. With inflation remaining at an elevated rate, the Fed is widely expected to accelerate its timetable for reducing bond purchases.
Potentially adding to concerns about monetary policy, the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increased by more than expected in November.
Lingering worries about the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus may also have generated some selling pressure after the World Health Organization warned the new variant is spreading faster than previous strains.
Crude oil futures dipped Tuesday on concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to renewed restrictions amid rising new cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $0.56 or 0.8 percent at $70.73 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will provide Q3 numbers for unemployment later today; in the three months prior, the jobless rate was 2.7 percent.
精彩评论