The Singapore stock market rebounded on Tuesday, one session after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 35 points or 1.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,130-point plateau and it's expected to remain in that neighborhood again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with support expected from oil companies and weakness likely from tech shares. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index collected 24.17 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 3,128.41 after trading between 3,108.93 and 3,128.92. Volume was 975.3 million shares worth 489.9 million Singapore dollars. There were 290 gainers and 175 decliners.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT increased 0.68 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust soared 1.50 percent, City Developments advanced 0.89 percent, Comfort DelGro accelerated 1.45 percent, Dairy Farm International surged 3.57 percent, DBS Group rose 0.77 percent, Genting Singapore improved 0.65 percent, Keppel Corp perked 0.98 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust strengthened 0.54 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation added 0.88 percent, SATS jumped 1.30 percent, SembCorp Industries was up 0.50 percent, Singapore Airlines gathered 1.01 percent, Singapore Exchange gained 0.86 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 1.08 percent, SingTel rallied 1.29 percent, Thai Beverage lost 0.75 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.64 percent, Wilmar International spiked 1.47 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Mapletree Commercial Trust and Singapore Press Holdings were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the Dow opened higher on Thursday and stayed that way, the S&P 500 opened higher but gradually fell into the red and the NASDAQ simply spent most of the day in negative territory.
The Dow gained 95.83 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 36,398.21, while the NASDAQ sank 89.54 points or 0.56 percent to close at 15,781.72 and the S&P 500 eased 4.84 points or 0.10 percent to end at 4,786.35.
The lackluster performance came as traders were reluctant to continue making significant moves following the recent strength in the markets. But they largely refrained from cashing in on recent gains amid easing concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Helping offset worries about the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shortened the recommended isolation time to for asymptomatic people with Covid-19 to 5 days from 10 days.
Crude oil futures rose Tuesday, extending gains to a fifth straight session on hopes the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is unlikely to impact global economic recovery. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February added $0.41 or 0.5 percent at $75.98 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will release November numbers for import, export and producer prices later today. In October, import prices rose 20.0 percent on year, while export prices jumped an annual 20.7 percent and producer prices spiked 25.4 percent.
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