Overbought Singapore Stock Market Called Higher On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday halted 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 3,100-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with support expected from the technology stocks and weakness from oil companies amid recession fears. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit on Monday.

The STI finished barely higher on Friday as gains from the properties and industrials were capped by weakness from the financial shares.

For the day, the index picked up 0.66 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 3,098.09 after trading between 3,072.34 and 3,101.77. Volume was 2.17 billion shares worth 2.3 billion Singapore dollars. There were 294 decliners and 232 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT shed 0.36 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 1.41 percent, CapitaLand Investment skyrocketed 7.71 percent, City Developments added 0.49 percent, Comfort DelGro soared 2.17 percent, DBS Group eased 0.03 percent, Genting Singapore tanked 1.35 percent, Hongkong Land surged 5.93 percent, Keppel Corp rose 0.31 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust and United Overseas Bank both retreated 0.56 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust spiked 1.63 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust jumped 1.23 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation declined 0.52 percent, SATS and Singapore Technologies Engineering both fell 0.25 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.08 percent, Wilmar International slumped 0.74 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plunged 2.17 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.51 percent and Thai Beverage, Singapore Exchange, SingTel and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed as the major averages opened higher on Friday, although the Dow was unable to hold its gains.

The Dow shed 38.29 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 29,888.78, while the NASDAQ surged 152.25 points or 1.43 percent to end at 10,798.35 and the S&P 500 rose 8.07 points or 0.22 percent to close at 3,674.84. For the week, the Dow and NASDAQ both plunged 3.8 percent and the S&P tumbled 5.8 percent.

The volatility on Wall Street came amid a quadruple witching day, which refers to the expiration of stock index futures, single-stock futures, stock options and stock index options.

Traders may also have been expressing some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following Thursday's sell-off, which reflected concerns about the economic impact of aggressive monetary policy tightening.

In economic news, the Federal Reserve said industrial production increased less than expected in May, while the Conference Board showed a continued decrease by its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators last month.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday on mounting fears about a possible global economic recession following severe tightening of policies by several central banks. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended lower by $8.03 or 6.8 percent at $109.56 a barrel.