(RTTNews.com) – The losing streak has stretched to three sessions now for the Singapore stock market, which has given away nearly 40 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index closed just below the 3,380-point plateau, although now the market may catch some support on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with bargain hunting likely for some of the oversold bourses – although the upside is likely to be capped by ongoing concerns over the debt situation in Greece. The European markets were sharply higher and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower – and the Asian markets are tipped to open flat to slightly higher.
The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the financial shares and plantation stocks were mitigated by support from the property sector.
For the day, the index shed 19.67 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 3,378.59 after trading between 3,369.42 and 3,391.82. Volume was 1.36 billion shares worth 1.22 billion Singapore dollars. There were 309 decliners and 114 gainers, with 510 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, City Developments added 0.80 percent, while CapitaLand gained 0.87 percent, DBS Group shed 0.66 percent, United Overseas Bank dipped 0.70 percent, Golden Agri-Resources dropped 2.44 percent, Wilmar International fell 1.23 percent, Noble Group lost 1.60 percent and SembCorp tumbled 0.95 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is slightly negative as stocks showed a lack of direction on Wednesday after failing to sustain an early upward move. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged before ending the session modestly lower.
The Dow slipped 27.55 points or 0.2 percent to 17,635.39, while the NASDAQ edged down 9.85 points or 0.2 percent to 4,849.94 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.92 points or 0.2 percent to 2,040.24.
Bargain hunting contributed to the early strength, but traders seemed reluctant to get back into the markets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting next week.
While the Fed is not expected to raise interest rates at the meeting, recent upbeat jobs data may lead the central bank to signal that a rate hike is on the horizon.
Continued strength in the value of the U.S. dollar and uncertainty about the situation in Greece also helped to limit the upside for the markets.
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