Singapore Bourse May Extend Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the four-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 65 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,575-point plateau and it's likely to open under pressure again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished slightly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 7.24 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 3,577.43 after trading between 3,576.82 and 3,604.56.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust fell 0.47 percent, while CapitaLand Investment tanked 1.90 percent, City Developments gained 0.74 percent, Comfort DelGro and Mapletree Logistics Trust both sank 0.67 percent, DBS Group perked 0.19 percent, DFI Retail Group plummeted 3.08 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.57 percent, Hongkong Land stumbled 1.03 percent, Keppel DC REIT slid 0.46 percent, Keppel Ltd added 0.76 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust rose 0.66 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust climbed 1.20 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 0.33 percent, SATS jumped 1.34 percent, Seatrium Limited advanced 1.14 percent, SembCorp Industries slumped 0.90 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.64 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.87 percent, Wilmar International eased 0.30 percent, Yangzijiang Financial rallied 1.27 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding dropped 0.80 percent and Emperador, SingTel and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and largely remained in the red throughout the day, closing with modest losses.

The Dow dropped 184.93 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 42,011.59, while the NASDAQ eased 6.65 points or 0.04 percent to close at 17,918.47 and the S&P 500 fell 9.60 points or 0.17 percent to end at 5,699.94.

The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Labor Department's highly anticipated monthly jobs report on Friday.

The data could impact the outlook for the U.S. economy as well as expectations regarding how aggressively the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in the Middle East, where an escalating conflict has contributed to a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.

Oil prices moved up sharply on Thursday thanks to tensions in the Middle East, with the war between Israel and Iran raising concerns about supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up $3.61 or 5.2 percent at $73.71 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see August numbers for retail sales later today; in July, sales were up 3.1 percent on month and 1.0 percent on year.