Singapore Stock Market Tipped To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four three trading days since the end of the seven-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 135 points or 4.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,095-point plateau and it's looking at a flat lead for Thursday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower on fears of continued policy tightening and worldwide recession. 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 Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index shed 24.17 points or 0.78 percent to finish at 3,093.31 after trading between 3,092.84 and 3,132.17. Volume was 1.43 billion shares worth 1.18 billion Singapore dollars. There were 343 decliners and 173 gainers.

Among the actives, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 4.30 percent, while CapitaLand Investment plunged 2.36 percent, Genting Singapore tanked 2.04 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding cratered 2.02 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.54 percent, Comfort DelGro surrendered 1.44 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering declined 1.27 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation retreated 1.22 percent, SingTel stumbled 1.18 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust climbed 1.12 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 1.03 percent, DFI Retail advanced 1.02 percent, DBS Group slumped 0.96 percent, Keppel Corp weakened 0.91 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 0.86 percent, Singapore Exchange sank 0.84 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust improved 0.80 percent, SATS shed 0.75 percent, City Developments and Frasers Logistics both lost 0.74 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust fell 0.61 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Trust rose 0.47 percent and Wilmar International, Hongkong Land and Ascendas REIT were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up slightly negative as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday, then spent most of the day in the green before slipping back into negative territory at the close.

The Dow shed 47.12 points or 0.15 percent to finish at 30,483.13, while the NASDAQ lost 16.22 points or 0.15 percent to close at 11,053.08 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.90 points or 0.13 percent to end at 3,759.89.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Powell indicated the Fed plans to continue moving expeditiously to combat inflation but argued the U.S. economy is strong enough to handle tighter monetary policy.

Powell said the pace of future interest rate hikes will be dependent on incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy and suggested the Fed will need to see "compelling evidence" that inflation is slowing before it begins to scale back its monetary policy tightening plans.

Crude oil futures tumbled on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to slowing global growth following sharp interest rate hikes by central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August ended lower by $3.33 or 3 percent at $106.19 a barrel, the lowest settlement in six weeks.

Closer to home, Singapore will release May data for consumer prices later today; in April, overall inflation was down 0.1 percent on month and up 5.4 percent on year, while core CPI advanced an annual 3.3 percent.