(RTTNews.com) – The winning streak has stretched to four sessions now for the Singapore stock market, which has climbed more than 70 points or2.1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index ended just above the 3,370-point plateau, and now the market draws another firm lead on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive following the European Central Bank’s highly anticipated decision to implement quantitative easing. The European and U.S. markets were firmly higher, and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.
The STI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the financials, industrials and properties.
For the day, the index gained 15.83 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 3,370.29 after trading between 3,349.11 and 3,377.34. Volume was 1.65 billion shares worth 1.29 billion Singapore dollars. There were 295 gainers and 146 decliners, with 498 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, City Developments jumped 1.78 percent, while CapitaLand added 0.59 percent, Golden Agri-Resources tumbled 2.35 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 2.45 percent, Noble Group surged 7.11 percent, SembCorp jumped 2.87 percent, SembCorp Marine spiked 3.68 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.58 percent and United Overseas Bank added 0.64 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks moved sharply higher on Thursday, extending the upward move seen in the three previous sessions.
The Dow surged 259.70 points or 1.5 percent to 17,813.98, while the NASDAQ soared 82.98 points or 1.8 percent to 4,750.40 and the S&P 500 jumped 31.03 points or 1.5 percent to 2,063.15.
The rally followed ECB President Mario Draghi’s announcement of an expanded asset purchase program. The ECB will purchase 60 billion euros per month worth of securities, including investment grade sovereign bonds, beginning in March.
On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department reported a modest drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended January 17.
Later today, Singapore will release consumer price data for December, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.1 percent on year following the 0.3 percent contraction in November.
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