Mild Upside Seen For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Thursday halted the two-day slide in which it had dipped just 5 points or 0.15 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,625-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside on decent earnings and economic news. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials came in mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 34.63 points or 0.96 percent to finish at 3,625.25 after trading between 3,608.09 and 3,633.14.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment advanced 1.01 percent, while City Developments perked 0.38 percent, Comfort DelGro gained 0.69 percent, DBS Group jumped 1.33 percent, Hongkong Land rose 0.50 percent, Keppel DC REIT sank 0.89 percent, Keppel Ltd increased 0.78 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust added 0.70 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gathered 0.41 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 1.06 percent, SATS soared 2.18 percent, Seatrium Limited tumbled 1.49 percent, SembCorp Industries was up 0.36 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering spiked 1.95 percent, SingTel surged 2.52 percent, Thai Beverage improved 0.94 percent, Wilmar International accelerated 1.53 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 1.22 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding slumped 1.15 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Logistics Trust, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust and Venture Corporation were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but ebbed and flowed as the day progressed, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow climbed 161.35 points or 0.37 percent to finish at a record 43,239.05, while the NASDAQ rose 6.53 points or 0.04 percent to close at 18,373.61 and the S&P 500 dipped 1.00 point or 0.02 percent to end at 5,841.47.

Strength among semiconductor stocks supported the markets for much of the session before a late-day pullback, although the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index still ended up 1.0 percent.

The strength in the sector came after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) reported a sharp increase in third quarter profits.

In economic news, Commerce Department said retail sales increased more than expected in September. Also, the Labor Department noted an unexpected pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Oil futures snapped a four-day losing streak on Thursday, supported by data showing an unexpected drop in crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November added $0.28 or 0.4 percent at $70.67 a barrel.