Renewed Selling Pressure Expected For Singapore Shares

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday snapped the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 25 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just shy of the 3,300-point plateau, although it figures to head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy and fairly flat amidst a lack of catalysts. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financials and trusts, losses from the properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index perked 3.40 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 3,297.83 after trading between 3,287.23 and 3,309.17.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT dipped 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rallied 1.00 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.79 percent, City Developments eased 0.14 percent, Comfort DelGro climbed 0.84 percent, DBS Group rose 0.25 percent, Emperador tumbled 0.97 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 0.85 percent, Hongkong Land slumped 0.92 percent, Keppel Corp strengthened 0.85 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust advanced 0.55 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust gained 0.42 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust spiked 1.15 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation added 0.47 percent, SATS surged 1.80 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 0.93 percent, SingTel shed 0.80 percent, Thai Beverage fell 0.76 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.43 percent, Wilmar International perked 0.24 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.83 percent and Singapore Technologies Engineering and Yangzijiang Financial were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be mixed as the Dow opened higher and stayed that way, the NASDAQ opened lower and stayed that way and the S&P 500 hugged the line all day and finished barely in the red.

The Dow added 98.27 points or 0.29 percent to finish at 33,684.79, while the NASDAQ shed 52.48 points or 0.43 percent to close at 12,031.88 and the S&P 500 eased 0.17 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,108.94.

A lack of major U.S. economic data kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports in the coming days.

The Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in the month of March is due to be released later today and could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices surged Tuesday on optimism for additional Chinese economic stimulus after soft inflation data from China created room for its central bank to potentially ease its monetary policy. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery surged $1.79 to $81.53 a barrel.