Singapore Shares May Bounce Higher Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had risen more than 20 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 4,920-point plateau although it may rebound on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on strong employment data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to move mostly higher.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following weakness from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 20.06 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 4,921.90 after trading between 4,895.09 and 4,939.10.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT lost 0.40 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Keppel DC REIT both declined 0.85 percent, CapitaLand Investment stumbled 1.49 percent, City Developments contracted 0.84 percent, DBS Group slipped 0.31 percent, DFI Retail Group added 0.95 percent, Genting Singapore slumped 0.72 percent, Hongkong Land plummeted 5.17 percent, Keppel Ltd surrendered 1.80 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust skidded 0.78 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust shed 0.51 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 0.98 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.18 percent, SATS sank 0.60 percent, Seatrium Limited tumbled 2.13 percent, SembCorp Industries weakened 0.94 percent, Singapore Airlines slid 0.32 percent, Singapore Exchange eased 0.19 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering dropped 0.74 percent, SingTel climbed 1.08 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.19 percent, United Overseas Bank fell 0.38 percent, UOL Group cratered 2.17 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 2.44 percent and Wilmar International and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow spent the ay bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,609.16, while the NASDAQ rallied 440.88 points or 1.71 percent to end at 26,247.08 and the S&P 500 gained 61.82 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,398.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent and the Dow crept up 0.2 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in April.

The data helped ease concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East even after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices inched higher Friday as Middle East tensions renewed between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is also delaying its response to a U.S. peace proposal, adding to the uncertainty. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $0.36 or 0.36 percent at $95.17 per barrel.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

This data feed is not available at this time.