The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last six trading days since the end of the five-day losing streak in which it had tumbled more than 165 points or 5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,225-point plateau and it's expected to open under pressure again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is continued volatility with a downward bias thanks to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index dropped 26.87 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 3,226.78 after trading between 3,207.83 and 3,253.14. Volume was 1.70 billion shares worth 1.66 billion Singapore dollars. There were 310 decliners and 191 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT slumped 1.05 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust was down 0.47 percent, City Developments and SATS both tumbled 1.26 percent, Comfort DelGro shed 0.70 percent, Dairy Farm International retreated 1.12 percent, DBS Group plunged 1.90 percent, Keppel Corp declined 1.16 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust stumbled 1.08 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.51 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 2.19 percent, Singapore Airlines tanked 1.37 percent, Singapore Exchange rose 0.32 percent, Singapore Press Holdings added 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering soared 2.29 percent, SingTel sank 0.79 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 0.75 percent, United Overseas Bank skidded 1.11 percent, Wilmar International surged 2.64 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding lost 0.67 percent and Genting Singapore, Hongkong Land and Mapletree Logistics Trust were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and remained solidly in the red throughout the session.
The Dow dropped 179.90 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 33,614.80, while the NASDAQ tumbled 224.46 points or 1.66 percent to close at 13,313.44 and the S&P sank 34.62 points or 0.79 percent to end at 4,328.87. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.8 percent and the Dow and S&P both fell 1.3 percent.
The weakness on Wall Street came as concerns about the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued to weigh on the markets, with Russia ratcheting up its attacks and taking control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Worries about Ukraine overshadowed the Labor Department report that showed U.S. employment once again jumped by much more than expected in February.
Crude oil prices moved up sharply on Friday as worries about supply disruptions grew amid an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended up by $8.01 or about 7.4 percent at $115.68 a barrel, the highest settlement since September 2008. WTI crude futures skyrocketed 26.3 percent for the week, the steepest climb in percentage terms since the week ending April 3, 2020.
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