Singapore Shares Likely To Remain Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday halted the five-day losing streak in which it had retreated almost 50 points or 1.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,240-point plateau although it may spin its wheels on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat amidst a lack of catalysts. The European and U.S. bourses were little changed and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the industrials, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the financials.

For the day, the index rose 7.29 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 3,239.31 after trading between 3,224.95 and 3,246.44.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT lost 0.72 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust was down 0.53 percent, City Developments declined 0.92 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.83 percent, DBS Group collected 0.96 percent, Emperador advanced 1.00 percent, Hongkong Land fell 0.22 percent, Keppel Corp rallied 1.10 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust slumped 0.85 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 1.79 percent, SATS tumbled 1.95 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering spiked 1.75 percent, SingTel added 0.84 percent, Thai Beverage sank 0.76 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.14 percent, Wilmar International climbed 1.02 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.33 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Genting Singapore, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and CapitaLand Investment were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Monday but faded badly in the afternoon, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 40.47 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 33,431.44, while the NASDAQ dipped 13.27 points or 0.11 percent to close at 11,675.74 and the S&P 500 perked 2.78 points or 0.07 percent to end at 4,048.42.

The early strength on Wall Street came as treasury yields moved notably lower amid optimism that the Federal Reserve is close to finishing its aggressive interest rate hikes.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as treasury yields rebounded ahead of congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell - who is due to testify before the Senate Banking Committee later today and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

The Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report is also likely to attract attention later in the week.

Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday after Saudi Arabia signaled that it sees oil demand picking up in Asia and Europe by raising most prices for crude shipments to the regions. West Texas International Crude oil futures for April advanced $0.78 or 1 percent at $80.46 a barrel.