Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in four straight sessions, advancing almost 90 points or 2.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,480-point plateau, although investors figure to cash in on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on concerns over the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and industrial issues, while the properties were mixed.

For the day, the index gained 17.26 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 3,480.34 after trading between 3,463.29 and 3,486.98.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment surged 3.35 percent, while City Developments eased 0.19 percent, DBS Group and Genting Singapore both jumped 1.22 percent, Emperador rallied 1.16 percent, Hongkong Land slumped 1.07 percent, Keppel DC REIT retreated 1.40 percent, Keppel Ltd climbed 0.98 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust tumbled 1.46 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust declined 1.22 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 0.74 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.75 percent, SATS dropped 0.82 percent, Seatrium Limited spiked 1.29 percent, SembCorp Industries added 0.41 percent, SingTel fell 0.32 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.78 percent and Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Comfort DelGro, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and DFI Retail Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened firmly in the red and only got worse as the day progressed.

The Dow plunged 626.15 points or 1.51 percent to finish at 40,836.93, while the NASDAQ plummeted 577.33 points or 3.26 percent to close at 17,136.30 and the S&P 500 tumbled 119.47 points or 2.12 percent to end at 5,528.93.

The sell-off on Wall Street came after the Institute for Supply Management noted continued decline by U.S. manufacturing activity in August. A separate report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a modest decrease by U.S. construction spending in July.

The weakness on Wall Street also came as some traders look to cash in on the previous session's gains amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is almost universally expected to lower rates at its next meeting later this month, but there is some disagreement about the pace of rate cuts. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, there is a 63.0 percent chance of a quarter-point rate cut later this month and a 37.0 percent chance of a half-point rate cut.

Oil prices fell sharply to a nine-month low on Tuesday on prospects of oversupply from OPEC weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down by $3.21 or 4.4 percent at $70.34 a barrel.