The Singapore stock market headed south again on Tuesday, one day after halting the six-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 60 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,215-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over growth and on the U.S. debt ceiling. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow suit.
The STI finished barely lower on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares and property stocks.
For the day, the index eased 0.68 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 3,214.04 after trading between 3,206.22 and 3,227.89.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.97 percent, while CapitaLand Investment slumped 1.40 percent, City Developments climbed 1.00 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 1.69 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 0.97 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 2.42 percent, Keppel Corp improved 0.93 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust skidded 1.17 percent, SATS added 0.76 percent, SembCorp Industries soared 2.54 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering surged 2.76 percent, SingTel jumped 1.18 percent, Thai Beverage retreated 1.68 percent, United Overseas Bank sank 0.32 percent, Wilmar International lost 0.25 percent, Yangzijiang Financial declined 1.41 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 2.52 percent and DBS Group, Emperador, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Ascendas REIT, DFI Retail Group and UOL Group were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday. The NASDAQ spent some time in positive territory but they all finished solidly in the red.
The Dow plunged 336.46 points or 1.01 percent to finish at 33,012.14, while the NASDAQ dipped 22.16 points or 0.18 percent to end at 12,345.05 and the S&P 500 sank 26.38 points or 0.64 percent to close at 4,109.90.
The steep drop by the Dow was partly due to a decrease by shares of Home Depot (HD), with the home improvement retailer falling by 2.2 percent after it reported weaker than expected first quarter revenues and lowered its full-year guidance.
Ongoing concerns about the U.S. debt ceiling also generated some negative sentiment as President Joe Biden meets with top congressional leaders with no resolution.
Traders were also reacting to a mixed batch of U.S. economic data, including separate reports showing weaker than expected retail sales growth and an unexpected increase in industrial output.
Oil prices drifted lower Tuesday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand following disappointing Chinese data. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended lower by $0.25 or 0.4 percent at $70.86 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will provide April numbers for non-oil domestic exports later this morning, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.7 percent on month and a decline of 9.9 percent on year. That follows the 18.4 percent monthly spike and the 8.30 percent yearly decline in March.
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