The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 65 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 2,780-point plateau although it may be stuck in neutral on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian suggests mild consolidation after significant upside in recent sessions, with a rising number of coronavirus cases also likely to weigh. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks.
For the day, the index gained 30.55 points or 1.11 percent to finish at 2,778.55 after trading between 2,764.13 and 2,781.58. Volume was 3.21 billion shares worth 1.75 billion Singapore dollars. There were 284 gainers and 199 decliners.
Among the actives, Singapore Airlines surged 4.91 percent, SATS soared 2.76 percent, Thai Beverage spiked 2.17 percent, Comfort DelGro accelerated 1.90 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.86 percent, DBS Group jumped 1.78 percent, SingTel climbed 1.73 percent, CapitaLand and United Overseas Bank both gathered 1.38 percent, Singapore Exchange dropped 1.09 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust perked 1.02 percent, Singapore Press Holdings advanced 0.97 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.82 percent, Ascendas REIT sank 0.76 percent, Keppel Corp added 0.59 percent, SembCorp Industries shed 0.59 percent, City Developments gained 0.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.53 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust lost 0.49 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.23 percent, Dairy Farm International slid 0.22 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and CapitaLand Commercial Trust were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as stocks opened lower on Tuesday, pared the losses as the day progressed but still ended in the red after two sessions of solid gains.
The Dow shed 167.09 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 28.783.35, while the NASDAQ lost 24.79 points or 0.21 percent to end at 11,899.34 and the S&P 500 fell 17.38 points or 0.48 percent to close at 3,609.53.
Profit taking contributed to the initial pullback on Wall Street after the strength seen in the previous session lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record closing highs.
The markets were also troubled by data that showed more than 166,000 news coronavirus cases on Monday, with the total number of cases in the U.S. now exceeding 11 million.
In economic news, the Commerce Department said retail sales rose less than expected in October, while the Federal Reserve noted a significant rebound in U.S. industrial production last month.
Crude oil futures contracts ended slightly higher on Tuesday as hopes for tighter production cuts by OPEC outweighed surging coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended up $0.09 or 0.2 percent at $41.43 a barrel.
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