Singapore Shares May Extend Monday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Monday ended the four-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 100 points or 2.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,750-point plateau and it's expected to open in the green again on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology stocks expected to lead the way higher. The European markets were flat and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index advanced 32.40 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 3,752.33 after trading between 3,715.52 and 3,763.13.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Seatrium Limited both jumped 1.05 percent, while CapitaLand Investment soared 1.57 percent, City Developments added 0.79 percent, Comfort DelGro slumped 0.68 percent, DBS Group spiked 1.26 percent, Emperador rallied 1.20 percent, Genting Singapore gained 0.67 percent, Hongkong Land strengthened 0.93 percent, Keppel DC REIT accelerated 1.42 percent, Keppel Ltd rose 0.45 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust climbed 0.92 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust advanced 0.80 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.61 percent, SATS gathered 0.28 percent, SembCorp Industries perked 0.19 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering improved 0.44 percent, SingTel sank 0.64 percent, Wilmar International increased 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 2.81 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Yangzijiang Financial and Thai Beverage were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street positive as the major averages opened flat on Monday but all eventually tracked higher and ended in the green.

The Dow added 66.69 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 42,906.95, while the NASDAQ spiked 192.29 points or 0.98 percent to close at 19,764.88 and the S&P 600 gained 43.22 points or 0.73 percent to end at 5,974.07.

The advance by the tech-heavy NASDAQ came amid a rally by semiconductor stocks, while significant strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks.

Overall trading activity was subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves amid what is likely to be a quiet week due to the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods slumped more than expected in November. Also, the Conference Board noted an unexpected deterioration by consumer confidence in December.

Oil futures settled lower Monday amid concerns about possible excess supply in the market, while a stronger dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February dipped $0.26 or 0.3 percent at $69.20 a barrel.