The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Thursday, one session after halting the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 45 points or 1.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,140-point plateau although it's likely to see renewed selling pressure on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with profit taking expected particularly among the oil and technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets finished lower and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the industrials and a mixed picture from the financial shares.
For the day, the index gained 12.68 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 3,142.45 after trading between 3,134.40 and 3,152.34. Volume was 1.3 billion shares worth 867.3 million Singapore dollars. There were 280 gainers and 156 decliners.
Among the actives, City Developments soared 1.30 percent, while Comfort DelGro advanced 0.71 percent, Dairy Farm International dropped 0.99 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.13 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.64 percent, Keppel Corp was up 0.38 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust rallied 0.98 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust gained 0.53 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 0.44 percent, SATS accelerated 1.03 percent, SembCorp Industries rose 0.50 percent, Singapore Airlines spiked 1.20 percent, Singapore Exchange perked 0.75 percent, Singapore Press Holdings jumped 0.86 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 0.80 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.19 percent, Wilmar International surged 1.44 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding gathered 0.77 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Ascendas REIT, SingTel and Thai Beverage were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday. The Dow moved into the green for a time before ending flat, while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 finished solidly in the red.
The Dow eased 0.06 points to finish at 25,754.69, while the NASDAQ tumbled 269.62 points or 1.71 percent to close at 15,517.37 and the S&P 500 dropped 33.76 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,667.45.
The pullback on Wall Street came as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, which saw stocks recover strongly from the post-Thanksgiving sell-off triggered by the detection of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
With concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant easing, traders are now looking ahead to next week's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. Reports suggest the Fed could decide to double the pace of tapering its asset purchase program to $30 billion per month.
In economic news, the Labor Department said first-time jobless claims pulled back by much more than expected last week.
Crude oil settled lower Thursday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand following several countries imposing fresh restrictions on movements to curb the spread of Omicron. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January sank $1.42 or 2 percent at $70.94 a barrel.