Singapore Sock Market May Extend Thursday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market inched higher again on Thursday, one day after ending the two-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 80 points or 1.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 5,050-point plateau and it may see additional support on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing crude oil prices. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished barely higher on Thursday as gains from the financial shares and property stocks were capped by weakness from the industrial issues.

For the day, the index perked 0.80 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 5,045.71 after trading between 5,028.90 and 5,073.11.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT vaulted 1.21 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust jumped 1.76 percent, CapitaLand Investment shed 0.38 percent, City Developments expanded 0.99 percent, DBS Group gained 0.73 percent, DFI Retail Group lost 0.24 percent, Hongkong Land and Keppel DC REIT both improved 0.88 percent, Keppel Ltd climbed 0.97 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust added 0.80 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust increased 0.85 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.39 percent, SATS gathered 0.31 percent, Seatrium Limited sank 0.45 percent, SembCorp Industries fell 0.16 percent, Singapore Airlines advanced 0.92 percent, Singapore Exchange spiked 2.38 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.45 percent, SingTel plummeted 6.37 percent, Thai Beverage strengthened 1.09 percent, United Overseas Bank perked 0.27 percent, UOL Group rallied 2.27 percent, Wilmar International plunged 3.22 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 2.89 percent and Genting Singapore, Mapletree Industrial Trust and Jardine Matheson were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages spent the first half of Thursday in the red before bouncing firmly into positive territory, ending near daily highs.

The Dow climbed 276.31 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 50,285.66, while the NASDAQ added 22.74 points or 0.09 percent to end at 26,293.10 and the S&P 500 rose 12.75 points or 0.17 percent to close at 7,445.72.

The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid a substantial rebound by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures surging as much as 4.5 percent after plummeting by 5.7 percent on Wednesday.

Unable to hold those early gains, crude oil prices turned lower over the course of trading on Thursday as investors watched developments in the U.S.-Iran peace talks. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was down $1.41 or 1.43 percent at $96.85 per barrel.

Meanwhile, traders seemed to shrug off the negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), although the AI leader still slumped by 1.8 percent.