The Singapore stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, dropping almost 65 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 2,800-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative as surging coronavirus cases threaten the imposition of further lockdown measures. The European and U.S. markets were firmly in the red and the Asian markets are tipped to follow suit.
The STI finished sharply lower on Monday with profit taking across the board, especially from the financials and industrials.
For the day, the index sank 49.87 points or 1.75 percent to finish at 2,805.95 after trading between 2,797.19 and 2,869.89. Volume was 2.9 billion shares worth 3.65 billion Singapore dollars. There were 314 decliners and 156 gainers.
Among the actives, Jardine Cycle plummeted 7.57 percent, while Yangzijiang Shipbuilding cratered 4.35 percent, Comfort DelGro plunged 4.07 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering tanked 3.98 percent, Singapore Airlines tumbled 3.77 percent, Singapore Exchange skidded 3.58 percent, Keppel Corp retreated 3.24 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 2.66 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust surrendered 2.51 percent, Singapore Press Holdings sank 2.46 percent, United Overseas Bank dropped 2.49 percent, SATS shed 2.36 percent, DBS Group lost 1.87 percent, Wilmar International fell 1.86 percent, Genting Singapore slid 1.78 percent, Ascendas REIT dipped 1.66 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust slipped 1.45 percent, Thai Beverage weakened 1.33 percent, SingTel faded 1.24 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was down 0.69 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust added 0.51 percent, Dairy Farm International eased 0.49 percent, CapitaLand softened 0.32 percent and CapitaLand Commercial Trust was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as stocks spent most of Monday in the red and finished that way, cutting into the gains from last week.
The Dow dropped 271.07 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 29,639.30, while the NASDAQ eased 7.11 points or 0.06 percent to end at 12,198.74 and the S&P 500 fell 16.67 points or 0.46 percent to close at 3,621.66.
The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking following strength in the markets over the past few sessions - while surging coronavirus cases add to the negative sentiment.
Reports that the Trump administration may add China's top chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC to a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies is also weighing on the markets.
Traders largely shrugged off the latest upbeat news regarding a potential coronavirus vaccine. Moderna (MRNA) announced that a phase 3 trial of its vaccine candidate indicates an efficacy of 94.1 percent.
Crude oil futures pared early losses and ended slightly lower Monday as traders looked ahead to the meeting of OPEC and its allies, which will consider extending large output cuts that are currently in place. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down $0.19 or 0.4 percent at $45.34 a barrel.
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