Singapore Bourse May Extend Thursday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after snapping the five-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 120 points or 2.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 4,360-point plateau and it may take further damage on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over bad loans in the auto industry. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the banks and mixed performances from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index lost 12.22 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 4,356.20 after trading between 4,341.97 and 4,369.73.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT added 0.35 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust climbed 0.43 percent, CapitaLand Investment sank 0.38 percent, City Developments rallied 1.28 percent, Comfort DelGro and Genting Singapore both slumped 0.68 percent, DBS Group dropped 0.45 percent, Hongkong Land plummeted 2.70 percent, Keppel DC REIT and Frasers Centrepoint Trust both advanced 0.42 percent, Keppel Ltd accelerated 1.51 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.06 percent, Seatrium Limited stumbled 1.42 percent, SembCorp Industries lost 0.32 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.20 percent, SingTel skidded 0.47 percent, United Overseas Bank declined 0.69 percent, UOL Group jumped 1.13 percent, Wilmar International strengthened 1.03 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 1.87 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Yangzijiang Financial, Thai Beverage, DFI Retail Group and SATS were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but dropped into the red midday and stayed there for the balance of the session.

The Dow stumbled 301.07 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 45,952.24, while the NASDAQ clumped 107.54 points or 0.47 percent to close at 22.562.54 and the S&P 500 sank 41.99 points or 0.63 percent to end at 6,629.07.

The weakness that materialized on Wall Street was attributed to the emergence of concerns about bad loans following the recent bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies First Brands and Tricolor Holdings.

Earlier in the day, the tech sector rose on upbeat earnings news from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), which produces chips for Nvidia (NVDA). TSM reported a bigger than expected surge in Q3 profits amid strong AI chip demand and raised its forecast for revenue growth.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia noted a substantial pullback by its reading on regional manufacturing activity in the month of October.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday after the Energy Information said that crude oil inventories in the U.S. increased much more than expected, sparking demand concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude Oil for November delivery was down $0.97 or 1.66 percent at $57.30 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will release September numbers for non-oil domestic exports later this morning; in August, NODX were down 8.9 percent on month and 11.3 percent on year.