The Singapore stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, sinking almost 55 points or 1.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 2,880-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian suggests a touch of upside, with stimulus optimism tempered by inflation concerns. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat - and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following weakness from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index dropped 28.21 points or 0.97 percent to finish at 2,880.64 after trading between 2,869.30 and 2,903.36. Volume was 2.8 billion shares worth 1.37 billion Singapore dollars. There were 261 decliners and 202 gainers.
Among the actives, Jardine Matheson plummeted 3.86 percent, while Mapletree Commercial Trust plunged 2.46 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tanked 2.37 percent, Thai Beverage tumbled 1.99 percent, United Overseas Bank skidded 1.38 percent, SATS retreated 1.20 percent, Singapore Airlines declined 1.14 percent, Wilmar International jumped 1.09 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust surrendered 1.04 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 1.03 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and UOL Group both dropped 0.95 percent, Dairy Farm International shed 0.93 percent, Singapore Exchange and Singapore Press Holdings both lost 0.81 percent, Keppel Corp fell 0.79 percent, CapitaLand slid 0.64 percent, Comfort DelGro dipped 0.63 percent, SembCorp Industries slipped 0.61 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.60 percent, DBS Group was down 0.50 percent, SingTel fell 0.42 percent, Ascendas REIT eased 0.33 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.27 percent, City Developments was up 0.14 percent and Hongkong Land was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as stocks were unable to hold early gains on Friday, finishing on opposite sides of the unchanged line.
The Dow rose 1.02 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 31,494.32, while the NASDAQ added 9.11 points or 0.07 percent to end at 13,874.46 and the S&P 500 dipped 7.26 points or 0.19 percent to close at 3,906.71. For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ sank 1.6 percent and the S&P fell 0.7 percent.
Continued optimism about more fiscal stimulus fueled the early strength on Wall Street, as new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. urged lawmakers to approve President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package.
However, buying interest waned amid a jump in treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note reading its highest closing level in almost a year - spurring concerns for the outlook for interest rates amid potentially higher inflation.
In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Realtors reported another unexpected increase in U.S. existing home sales in January.
Crude oil prices drifted lower Friday as worries about supply disruptions eased after most of the oil companies in Texas prepared to resume production. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $1.28 or 2.1 percent at $59.24 a barrel.
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