Singapore Stock Market May Reverse Tuesday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday wrote a finish to the five-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 90 points or 2.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,490-point plateau although it's likely to bounce higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on solid earnings news and interest rate optimism. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index shed 11.98 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 3,487.91 after trading between 3,469.56 and 3,497.89.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment dropped 0.72 percent, while City Developments skidded 0.73 percent, DBS Group tumbled 1.42 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.57 percent, Hongkong Land gained 0.30 percent, Keppel DC REIT fell 0.51 percent, Keppel Ltd and SATS both shed 0.60 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 0.75 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.44 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation retreated 1.24 percent, Seatrium Limited rallied 1.36 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.05 percent, SingTel jumped 1.33 percent, Wilmar International sank 0.64 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 5.65 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Yangzijiang Financial, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Thai Beverage, Comfort DelGro and Emperador were unchanged.

The Dow surged 742.76 points or 1.85 percent to finish at a record 40,945.48, while the NASDAQ added 36.77 points or 0.20 percent to close at 18,509.34 and the S&P 500 rose 35.98 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,667.20 - also a record.

The strength on Wall Street reflected positive earnings news from the likes of UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

Traders also reacted positively to the latest U.S. economic news, including a Commerce Department report showing U.S. retail sales came in unchanged in June. The Labor Department also released a report showing import prices in the U.S. were unexpectedly flat last month while export prices slid 0.5 percent.

Gold stocks also saw significant strength amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.4 percent. The index reached a more than two-year closing high.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, extending losses to a third straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand and a slightly stronger dollar. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August sank $1.15 or 1.4 percent at $80.76 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release June numbers for non-oil domestic exports later today; in May, NODX was down 0.1 percent both on month and on year and the trade surplus was SGD4.563 billion.