Singapore Bourse Draws Flat Lead For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 60 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,935-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets murky on an uncertain outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were slightly up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly higher again on Wednesday following gains from the financials and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index added 8.48 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 3,934.04 after trading between 3,921.86 and 3,949.65.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.51 percent, while CapitaLand Investment lost 0.40 percent, City Developments and Seatrium Limited both fell 0.39 percent, Comfort DelGro and Keppel Ltd both climbed 0.74 percent, DBS Group added 0.52 percent, Genting Singapore spiked 1.31 percent, Hongkong Land advanced 0.69 percent, Keppel DC REIT shed 0.47 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust slumped 0.85 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust sank 0.50 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tumbled 1.64 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.51 percent, SATS retreated 1.19 percent, SembCorp Industries soared 1.99 percent, SingTel rallied 1.20 percent, Thai Beverage declined 0.99 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 2.45 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 0.94 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 2.24 percent and Emperador and Singapore Technologies Engineering were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday but trended upward throughout the day, finally ending mildly to the upside.

The Dow gained 71.25 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 44,627.59, while the NASDAQ rose 14.99 points or 0.07 percent to close at 20,056.25 and the S&P 500 perked 14.57 points or 0.24 percent to end at 6,144.15.

The rebound also came even though the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting revealed that officials want to see further progress on inflation before they consider resuming lowering interest rates.

In economic news, the Commerce Department said housing starts pulled back by more than expected in January.

Oil futures settled higher Wednesday, extending gains from previous session amid concerns about the outlook for supplies after a recent drone attack by Ukraine on a Russian pumping station. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March rose $0.40 or 0.56 percent at $72.25 a barrel.