Losing Streak May Continue For Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, retreating almost 40 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,260-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is uninspired thanks to uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the financials and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index slumped 35.51 points or 1.08 percent to finish at 3,264.53 after trading between 3,256.16 and 3,290.16.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 1.04 percent, while CapitaLand Investment declined 1.15 percent, City Developments gained 0.34 percent, Comfort DelGro soared 1.41 percent, DBS Group sank 0.61 percent, Genting Singapore slumped 1.13 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.52 percent, Keppel DC REIT rallied 1.15 percent, Keppel Ltd shed 0.60 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust tumbled 1.61 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dropped 0.65 percent, SATS jumped 1.18 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 0.76 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering lost 0.26 percent, SingTel fell 0.42 percent, Venture Corporation surged 2.76 percent, Wilmar International advanced 0.94 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding added 0.59 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Yangzijiang Financial, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, Thai Beverage, Frasers Logistics and Emperador were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but ultimately wound up mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 172.13 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 39,056.39, while the NASDAQ sank 29.80 points or 0.18 percent to close at 16,302.76 and the S&P 500 eased 0.03 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,187.67.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates following Tuesday's remarks by Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari.

Kashkari suggested interest rates may need to remain at current levels for an extended period and said he couldn't rule out another rate increase.

The Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower rates sometime in the third quarter, however, with CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicating an 83.5 percent chance rates will be lower by September.

Oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories rose last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended higher by $0.61 or 0.78 percent at $78.99 per barrel.