(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 almost 50 points or 1.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,085-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising treasury yields and ahead of key U.S. employment data later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished slightly lower on Monday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues. For the day, the index sank 6.23 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 3,084.08 after trading between 3,079.14 and 3,112.40.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust jumped 1.08 percent, while CapitaLand Investment rose 0.33 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 0.78 percent, DBS Group slumped 0.63 percent, Keppel Corp dropped 0.58 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust soared 1.76 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust added 0.62 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 0.16 percent, SATS gained 0.38 percent, Seatrium Limited rallied 0.98 percent, SembCorp Industries plummeted 615 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering sank 0.27 percent, SingTel retreated 0.87 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.00 percent, Wilmar International was up 0.28 percent, Yangzijiang Financial spiked 1.59 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 2.76 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore, Hongkong Land, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Ascendas REIT, City Developments and DFI Retail were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, pared their losses but still ended firmly in the red.
The Dow dropped 41.06 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 36,204.44, while the NASDAQ slumped 119.54 points or 0.84 percent to close at 14,185.49 and the S&P 500 sank 24.85 points or 0.54 percent to end at 4,569.78.
A rebound by treasury yields contributed to the weakness on Wall Street, as the yield on the benchmark ten-year note bounced off its lowest levels in three months.
Selling pressure waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.
In economic news, The Commerce Department released a report showing factory orders pulled back by much more than expected in the month of October.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Monday, pushing the most active futures contract to a nearly three-week low amid worries about the outlook for demand and skepticism about OPEC output cuts. The dollar's rise also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended lower by $1.03 or 1.4 percent at $73.04 a barrel, the lowest settlement since November 16.
Closer to home, Singapore will release October figures for retail sales later today; in September, sales were down 1.6 percent on month and up 0.6 percent on year.
