Singapore Shares May Take Further Damage On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, slumping almost 80 points or 1.7 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 4,960-point plateau and it's likely to extend its losses again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares and property stocks, while the industrials came in mixed.

For the day, the index sank 43.35 points or 0.87 percent to finish at 4,964.38 after trading between 4,958.29 and 5,027.22.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT added 0.37 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and SingTel both contracted 1.57 percent, CapitaLand Investment skidded 1.29 percent, City Developments plunged 6.02 percent, DBS Group shed 0.92 percent, DFI Retail Group was down 0.47 percent, Genting Singapore lost 0.69 percent, Hongkong Land declined 1.95 percent, Keppel DC REIT climbed 0.87 percent, Keppel Ltd sank 1.06 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust advanced 0.78 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.28 percent, SATS stumbled 2.27 percent, Seatrium Limited surged 3.17 percent, SembCorp Industries retreated 2.10 percent, Singapore Airlines slipped 0.56 percent, Singapore Exchange slumped 1.38 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tumbled 2.05 percent, Thai Beverage dropped 1.09 percent, United Overseas Bank fell 0.59 percent, UOL Group plummeted 6.07 percent, Wilmar International tanked 2.78 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 1.82 percent and Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but trended lower throughout the day, finally ending on opposite sides of the line.

The Dow perked 17.05 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 49,499.20, while the NASDAQ tumbled 273.70 points or 1.18 percent to end at 22,878.38 and the S&P 500 lost 37.27 points or 0.54 percent to close at 6,908.86.

The pullback on Wall Street came amid a negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), even though the company reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and provided upbeat guidance.

Networking stocks also showed a notable move to the downside, contributing to the slump by the tech-heavy NASDAQ.

In economic news, the Labor Department noted a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week.

Crude oil prices saw early strength Thursday on Mideast tensions but couldn't hold the gains after progress was reported in talks between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery was down by $0.11 or 0.2 percent at $65.31 barrel.