Singapore Stocks May Remain Rangebound On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered more than 80 points or 1.7 percent. The Straits Times Index sits just beneath the 4,910-point plateau and it may be stuck in neutral again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid geopolitical concerns, although support from gold and oil figure to limit the downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the property stocks, gains from the industrials and a mixed picture from the financials.

For the day, the index sank 13.68 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 4,909.34 after trading between 4,890.29 and 4,925.54.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT slumped 0.70 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.43 percent, CapitaLand Investment and SATS both stumbled 1.29 percent, City Developments retreated 1.06 percent, DBS Group added 0.46 percent, DFI Retail Group tanked 1.67 percent, Hongkong Land declined 0.71 percent, Keppel DC REIT gained 0.45 percent, Keppel Ltd perked 0.27 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust improved 0.68 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation skidded 0.61 percent, Seatrium Limited jumped 1.44 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.17 percent, Singapore Airlines dropped 0.31 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering was up 0.42 percent, SingTel contracted 0.65 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.04 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.70 percent, UOL Group plummeted 3.13 percent, Wilmar International plunged 2.29 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.90 percent and Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Genting Singapore, Singapore Exchange and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but tailed off and hugged the line, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,015.60, while the NASDAQ added 40.35 points or 0.17 percent to close at 23,857.45 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,978.03.

The choppy trading on Wall Street continued after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

The Fed said the decision to keep rates steady came amid elevated uncertainty about the economic outlook. The central bank also said it remains attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the long run.

Despite the choppy trading by the broader markets, gold stocks moved sharply higher amid a continued surge by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.7 percent to a new record closing high.

Crude oil prices soared on Wednesday as Iran rejected any nuclear talks under threat even as a massive U.S. armada nears the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.85 or 1.36 percent at $63.24 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see preliminary unemployment data for Q4 later today; in the previous three months, the jobless rate was 2.0 percent.