Renewed Selling Pressure Tipped For Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market rebounded on Thursday, one day after snapping the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced almost 50 points or 1.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,305-point plateau although it may head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation, largely on profit taking following recent gains. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the properties and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial issues.

For the day, the index collected 15.57 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 3,304.99 after trading between 3,300.86 and 3,324.01.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 2.05 percent, while CapitaLand Investment climbed 1.53 percent, City Developments jumped 1.72 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.71 percent, DBS Group collected 0.68 percent, Emperador improved 1.18 percent, Genting Singapore tumbled 2.16 percent, Hongkong Land rose 0.29 percent, Keppel DC REIT soared 4.07 percent, Keppel Ltd increased 0.90 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust surged 4.10 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust accelerated 2.29 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust spiked 3.82 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.35 percent, SATS added 0.78 percent, Seatrium Limited advanced 1.26 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 0.95 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.71 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 1.00 percent, Wilmar International lost 0.63 percent, Yangzijiang Financial strengthened 1.59 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and SingTel were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up soft as the major averages spent most of Thursday in the green before a late wave of profit taking nudged them under water.

The Dow shed 38.62 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 39,869.38, while the NASDAQ sank 44.07 points or 0.26 percent to close at 16,698.32 and the S&P dipped 11.05 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,297.10.

The early strength on Wall Street reflected an extension of the rally seen during Wednesday's session, which came amid optimism about the outlook for interest rates following tamer-than-expected consumer price inflation data.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, with traders pausing to lock in recent gains.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a pullback by initial jobless claims last week. Also, a separate Labor Department report showed U.S. import prices jumped more than expected in April, and industrial production came in flat last month.

Oil prices advanced on Thursday, continuing to benefit from recent data showing a larger than expected decline in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. Hopes of an interest rate cut in September contributed as well to the rise in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.60 at $79.23 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see April figures for non-oil domestic exports later today; in March, NODX tumbled 8.4 percent on month and 20.7 percent on year for a trade surplus of SGD4.657 billion.