Singapore Stock Market Expected To Stay Rangebound

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one session after snapping the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 5 points or 0.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,305-point plateau although it's likely to hand back those gains on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index added 6.02 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 3m396.02 after trading between 3,302.03 and 3,314.07.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Frasers Logistics both rose 0.52 percent, while CapitaLand Investment collected 0.75 percent, City Developments gained 0.57 percent, Comfort DelGro surged 2.24 percent, DBS Group eased 0.06 percent, Emperador slumped 1.15 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.15 percent, Hongkong Land accelerated 1.24 percent, Keppel DC REIT sank 0.56 percent, Keppel Ltd perked 0.31 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust added 0.83 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust lost 0.47 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 1.52 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 0.21 percent, Seatrium Limited tumbled 1.94 percent, SembCorp Industries spiked 1.41 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering climbed 1.00 percent, SingTel gathered 0.38 percent, Thai Beverage strengthened 1.08 percent, Wilmar International advanced 0.97 percent, Yangzijiang Financial soared 1.45 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 1.22 percent and SATS was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and ultimately finished mixed but little changed.

The Dow added 15.53 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 39,150.33, while the NASDAQ shed 32.24 points or 0.18 percent to end at 17,689.36 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.55 points or 0.16 percent to close at 5,464.62.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow jumped 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent, while the NASDAQ was nearly unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders assessed recent activity in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reach new record intraday highs before turning lower.

Traders also kept an eye on shares of Nvidia (NVDA), as the AI darling has recently been a key driver of the markets. It dragged the technology shares lower after slumping 3.2 percent on Friday after briefly surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) as the world's most valuable public company.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales in the U.S. fell roughly in line with estimates in May. A separate report from the Conference Board said leading U.S. economic indicators fell more than expected last month.

Oil futures settled lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about the outlook for global oil demand and a firm greenback. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July shed $0.56 or 0.7 percent at $80.73 a barrel for the week but gained 3 percent for the week.

Closer to home, Singapore will see May figures for consumer prices later today; in April, overall inflation was up 0.1 percent on month and 2.7 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 3.1 percent.