Singapore Bourse Likely Rangebound Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in two straight trading days, collecting almost 20 points or 0.5 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,810-point plateau although it figures to see little movement again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets mostly saw slight weakness and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished barely higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index perked 1.08 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 3,810.35 after trading between 3,797.95 and 3,821.16.

Among the actives, City Developments added 0.38 percent, while Comfort DelGro dropped 0.68 percent, DBS Group and Keppel Ltd both eased 0.14 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 1.30 percent, Keppel DC REIT advanced 0.45 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust sank 0.45 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.24 percent, SATS gained 0.27 percent, Seatrium Limited climbed 0.50 percent, SembCorp Industries shed 0.36 percent, SingTel jumped 1.95 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 0.88 percent, Wilmar International lost 0.33 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding rallied 2.49 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Investment, Emperador, Genting Singapore, Yangzijiang Financial, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, Frasers Centrepoint Trust and Singapore Technologies Engineering were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild downside as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly slipped under water and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ broke back into positive territory later in the day.

The Dow shed 86.04 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 43,828.06, while the NASDAQ rose 23.92 points or 0.12 percent to close at 19,926.72 and the S&P 500 eased 0.16 points or 0.00 percent to end at 6,051.09.

For the week, the NASDAQ rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the narrower Dow tumbled 1.8 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Broadcom (AVGO), which reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings and said it expects continued strong demand for its custom AI chips.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders looked ahead to this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another 25 basis points, although traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about future rate cuts.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as supply worries resurfaced following additional sanctions on Iran and Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.27 or about 1.8 percent at $71.29 a barrel.