Ahead of Monday's holiday for National Day, the Singapore stock market had moved higher in two of three trading days since the end of the three-day slide in which it had fallen almost 30 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,175-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with weakness from crude oil prices tempered by support from technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.
The STI finished slightly higher on Friday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index rose 2.08 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 3,177.18 after trading between 3,167.49 and 3,183.12. Volume was 1.41 billion shares worth 1.21 billion Singapore dollars. There were 238 gainers and 219 decliners.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT lost 0.32 percent, while CapitaLand gained 0.49 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.47 percent, Comfort DelGro spiked 1.27 percent, Dairy Farm International sank 0.83 percent, DBS Group collected 0.65 percent, Genting Singapore shed 0.63 percent, Keppel Corp plunged 1.98 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust retreated 0.93 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust declined 1.40 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation eased 0.08 percent, SATS advanced 0.76 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.48 percent, Singapore Airlines soared 1.40 percent, Singapore Exchange plummeted 2.91 percent, Thai Beverage tanked 1.49 percent, United Overseas Bank added 0.53 percent, Wilmar International and Hongkong Land both dropped 0.67 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding surged 4.17 percent and City Developments, Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Technologies Engineering and SingTel were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street continues to be incongruous as the major averages opened lower on Monday; the NASDAQ quickly broke modestly into the green, while the Dow and the S&P 500 remained negative throughout.
The Dow shed 106.99 points or 0.30 percent to finish at 35,101.52, while the NASDAQ rose 24.42 points or 0.16 percent to close at 14,860.18 and the S&P 500 fell 4.16 points or 0.09 percent to end at 4,432.36.
Stocks continued to turn in a mixed performance following last Friday's better than expected U.S. jobs data. The closely watched report from the Labor Department added to economic optimism but also raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy.
Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunging by 2.6 percent. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid another steep drop by the price of the precious metal, as gold for December delivery plummeted $36.60 to $1,726.50 an ounce.
Crude oil prices declined sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand after China imposed travel curbs at many places in the country, aiming to halt the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $66.48 a barrel.
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