Singapore Stock Market May See Support At 3,100 Points

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, sinking more than 120 points or 4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,110-point plateau although it may find traction on Wednesday.

The global forecast is cautious ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed, and the oversold Asian markets figure to see little movement ahead of the rate decision.

The STI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials were mixed.

For the day, the index dropped 30.46 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 3,108.89 after trading between 3,104.39 and 3,125.37. Volume was 1.66 billion shares worth 1.34 billion Singapore dollars. There were 312 decliners and 201 gainers.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT tumbled 2.14 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust plunged 3.64 percent, CapitaLand Investment plummeted 4.20 percent, City Developments declined 1.74 percent, Comfort DelGro stumbled 1.42 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.27 percent, Genting Singapore skidded 1.32 percent, Hongkong Land and Mapletree Industrial Trust both surrendered 2.02 percent, Keppel Corp fell 0.74 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust tanked 2.22 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust slumped 1.22 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.17 percent, SATS sank 1.25 percent, SembCorp Industries gained 0.36 percent, Singapore Exchange added 0.63 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 1.24 percent, SingTel lost 0.79 percent, United Overseas Bank slid 0.44 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.98 percent, Yangzijiang Financial climbed 1.04 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding retreated 1.53 percent and Thai Beverage was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky after the major averages shook off a higher open on Friday. The Dow and S&P quickly turned lower and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ bounced back and forth across the line to finish higher.

The Dow dropped 151.91 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 30,364.83, while the NASDAQ added 19.12 points or 0.18 percent to close at 10,828.35 and the S&P 500 dipped 14.15 points or 0.38 percent to end at 3,735.48.

The choppy trade on Wall Street comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today.

The Fed is expected to hike interest rates by 50 basis points, although forecasts are suggesting a 75-bp increase.

In economic news, the Labor Department said producer prices increased on a monthly basis but eased off a 21-year high annually.

Crude oil futures drifted lower Tuesday on reports of a likely proposal to impose a federal surtax on oil companies to curb rising inflation. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended lower by $2.00 or 1.7 percent at $118.93 a barrel.