Singapore Shares May Head South Again On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 50 points or 1.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,600-point plateau although it may see renewed selling pressure on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative amid rising treasury yields and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the properties and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial issues.

For the day, the index gained 13.37 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 3,600.78 after trading between 3,587.89 and 3,616.84.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust slid 0.48 percent, while CapitaLand Investment skidded 1.01 percent, City Developments eased 0.19 percent, Comfort DelGro shed 0.68 percent, DBS Group collected 0.51 percent, Emperador tumbled 1.16 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.60 percent, Hongkong Land rallied 2.28 percent, Keppel DC REIT jumped 1.30 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 0.71 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 1.25 percent, SATS added 0.27 percent, Seatrium Limited stumbled 1.02 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 0.74 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.21 percent, SingTel fell 0.62 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 0.93 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.78 percent and Keppel Ltd, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and remained in the red throughout the trading day, albeit bouncing off session lows.

The Dow plunged 409.94 points or 0.96 percent to finish at 42,514.95, while the NASDAQ plummeted 296.47 points or 1.60 percent to close at 18,276.47 and the S&P 500 dropped 53.78 points or 0.92 percent to end at 5,797.42.

The weakness on Wall Street came amid a continued increase by treasury yields, which have moved sharply higher over the past few sessions.

The yield on the benchmark ten-year note has risen to its highest level in almost three months amid worries the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates slower than previously anticipated.

While the Fed is still widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter-point next month, there is increasing skepticism about another rate cut in December.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday, weighed down by data showing a larger than expected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories last week, while a stronger dollar also weighed. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December fell $0.97 or 1.35 percent at $70.77 a barrel.