Singapore Stock Market Overdue For Support On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in seven straight sessions, slumping more than 55 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 4,300-point plateau although it may find traction on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets continued to be mildly positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The STI finished slightly lower again on Monday following losses from the financial shares and mixed performances from the property stocks and industrial issues. For the day, the index dipped 5.34 points or 0.12 percent to finish at 4,297.37 after trading between 4,291.99 and 4,315.70. Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust shed 0.44 percent, while CapitaLand Investment tumbled 1.11 percent, City Developments jumped 1.19 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.67 percent, DBS Group lost 0.34 percent, DFI Retail Group and Venture Corporation both rallied 1.58 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 0.66 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 3.42 percent, Keppel Ltd improved 0.57 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was down 0.12 percent, Seatrium Limited tanked 1.68 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.33 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering increased 0.47 percent, SingTel stumbled 1.59 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 1.09 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.06 percent, UOL Group slipped 0.13 percent, Yangzijiang Financial surged 1.67 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding dropped 0.91 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT, Keppel DC REIT, Wilmar International, SATS and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged. The lead from Wall Street is mildly positive as the major averages opened in the red on Monday but quickly bounced higher and continued to trend that way throughout the session, ending near daily highs.

The Dow added 66.27 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 46,381.54, while the NASDAQ jumped 157.50 points or 0.70 percent to close at 22,788.98 and the S&P 500 gained 29.39 points or 0.44 percent to end at 6,693.75.

Profit taking contributed to the initial weakness on Wall Street, with some traders looking to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

Selling pressure waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders remain optimistic about the outlook for the markets amid expectations of further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

After cutting rates by a quarter point last Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to lower rates by another quarter at each of its next two meetings in October and December.

Crude oil was little changed on Monday amid lingering oversupply concerns after OPEC agreed earlier this month to boost production starting in October. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.05 or 0.08 percent at $62.73 per barrel. Closer to home, Singapore will release August numbers for consumer prices later today; in July, overall inflation was down 0.5 percent on month and up 0.6 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 0.5 percent.