Singapore Bourse May Halt Its Slide On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in consecutive trading days, slumping almost 35 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 5,000-point plateau although it may find traction on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, riding solely on the strength of technology companies. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are likely to follow that lead.

The STI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 13.06 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 5,007.72 after trading between 4,995.51 and 5,021.67.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT slumped 0.74 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust added 0.79 percent, CapitaLand Investment shed 0.32 percent, City Developments sank 0.40 percent, DBS Group lost 0.29 percent, DFI Retail Group surged 3.86 percent, Genting Singapore plummeted 8.23 percent, Hongkong Land was down 0.11 percent, Keppel Ltd slipped 0.15 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust skidded 0.69 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 0.14 percent, SATS rose 0.25 percent, Seatrium Limited stumbled 1.78 percent, SembCorp Industries retreated 1.59 percent, Singapore Airlines and Jardine Matheson both jumped 1.99 percent, Singapore Exchange advanced 0.84 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering eased 0.10 percent, SingTel tumbled 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage tanked 2.13 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 0.59 percent, UOL Group fell 0.18 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.78 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Keppel DC REIT, Wilmar International and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and remained in the green throughout the trading day, ending at session highs.

The Dow climbed 307.65 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 49,482.15, while the NASDAQ jumped 288.40 points or 1.26 percent to close at 23,152.08 and the S&P 500 gained 56.06 points or 0.81 percent to end at 6,946.13.

The strength on Wall Street reflected optimism ahead of the release of earnings news from AI chipmaker and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) after the close of Wednesday's trade. The company's earnings came in at $42.960 billion, or $1.76 per share compared to $22.091 billion, or $0.89 per share, last year.

Software stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index spiking by 3.1 percent. The index continued to regain ground after slumping to its lowest closing level in ten months on Monday amid easing AI disruption concerns.

The price of crude oil ticked lower on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a substantial rebound by U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery slipped $0.15 or 0.2 percent to $65.48 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release Q4 data for gross domestic product, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.9 percent on quarter, easing from 2.4 percent in the three months prior. Singapore also will provide January numbers for industrial production, with forecasts calling for an increase of 4.5 percent on month and 11.0 percent on year. The follows the 13.3 percent monthly decline and the 8.3 percent annual jump in December.