Rally May Stall For Singapore Stock Market

The Singapore stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 30 points or 0.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,960-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the release of U.S. employment data later today. The European and U.S. markets finished mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished barely higher again on Tuesday as gains from the properties and industrials were capped by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index perked 3.42 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 4,964.25 after trading between 4,934.27 and 4,964.41.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT tumbled 1.06 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust jumped 0.81 percent, CapitaLand Investment rose 0.32 percent, City Developments gathered 0.31 percent, DBS Group sank 0.67 percent, DFI Retail Group eased 0.23 percent, Hongkong Land soared 2.27 percent, Keppel DC REIT added 0.45 percent, Keppel Ltd surged 3.31 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust lost 0.49 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust dropped 0.75 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slipped 0.28 percent, SATS was down 0.26 percent, Seatrium Limited fell 0.48 percent, SembCorp Industries was up 0.16 percent, Singapore Exchange gained 0.39 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering perked 0.20 percent, SingTel rallied 0.84 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 1.05 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.57 percent, UOL Group shed 0.53 percent, Wilmar International climbed 0.58 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 2.16 percent and Genting Singapore, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Singapore Airlines and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Tuesday, hugged both sides of the line all day and then finished little changed.

The Dow rose 52.27 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 50,188.14, while the NASDAQ slumped 136.20 points or 0.59 percent to end at 23,102.47 and the S&P 500 sank 23.01 points or 0.33 percent to close at 6,941.81.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report later today.

The report, which was delayed due to the brief government shutdown last week, is expected to show employment climbed by 70,000 jobs in January after rising by 50,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a Commerce Department report showing retail sales in the U.S. were unexpectedly flat in December. A separate report from the Labor Department showed import prices in the U.S. crept up in line with estimates in December.

Crude oil prices ticked lower on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. jobs data. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was down $0.12 of 0.19 percent to $64.24 per barrel.