Steady Start Predicted For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday snapped the three-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 35 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,450-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is a holding pattern ahead of Wednesday's FOMC rate decision and announcement. The European and U.S. markets ended mixed and flat and the Asian bourses are likely to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, industrial issues and property stocks.

For the day, the index gained 17.71 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 3,444.18 after trading between 3,437.95 and 3,461.19.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust advanced 0.98 percent, while CapitaLand Investment strengthened 1.11 percent, City Developments eased 0.19 percent, Comfort DelGro stumbled 0.72 percent, DBS Group rose 0.25 percent, Emperador rallied 1.19 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.59 percent, Hongkong Land sank 0.60 percent, Keppel DC REIT surged 4.74 percent, Keppel Ltd shed 0.61 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust increased 0.78 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust jumped 1.32 percent, SATS improved 0.96 percent, Seatrium Limited skyrocketed 8.00 percent, SembCorp Industries climbed 1.08 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.23 percent, SingTel spiked 1.97 percent, Thai Beverage soared 2.00 percent, Wilmar International gained 0.32 percent, Yangzijiang Financial accelerated 1.53 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding accelerated 1.54 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and DFI Retail Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Monday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 49.41 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 40,539.93, while the NASDAQ added 12.32 points or 0.07 percent to close at 17,370.20 and the S&P 500 rose 4.44 points or 0.08 percent to end at 5,463.54.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement for additional clues about a possible rate cut in September.

Investors are also waiting for corporate earnings this week from companies that include Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN).

Crude oil prices fell to a seven-week low on Monday amid concerns about the outlook for demand from China, and ahead of Thursday's OPEC meeting. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.35 or 1.8 percent at $75.81 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see Q2 numbers for unemployment later today; in the three months prior, the jobless rate was 2.1 percent.