The Singapore stock market on Tuesday snapped the five-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 30 points or 1.2 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 2,485-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside, again led by the technology stocks ahead of the Federal Reserve announcement later today. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The STI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following mixed performances from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index rose 3.28 points or 0.13 percent to finish at 2,485.83 after trading between 2,482.91 and 2,502.10.
Among the actives, SembCorp Industries surged 3.36 percent, while Genting Singapore soared 2.99 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 2.07 percent, Singapore Exchange accelerated 1.17 percent, Hongkong Land Holdings plunged 1.05 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust jumped 1.01 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 0.99 percent, Ascendas REIT tumbled 0.93 percent, CapitaLand Commercial Trust skidded 0.58 percent, DBS Group dropped 0.54 percent, Wilmar International advanced 0.48 percent, Keppel Corp sank 0.48 percent, SingTel shed 0.45 percent, CapitaLand lost 0.37 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering added 0.29 percent, Singapore Airlines gained 028 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.26 percent, City Developments fell 0.25 percent and Dairy Farm International, CapitaLand Mall Trust, Thai Beverage, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, SATS, Singapore Press Holdings and Comfort DelGro all were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as stocks moved mostly higher on Tuesday, although the Dow gave back almost all of its gains.
The Dow rose 2.27 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 27,995.60, while the NASDAQ spiked 133.67 points or 1.21 percent to end at 11,190.32 and the S&P 500 rose 17.66 points or 0.52 percent to close at 3,401.20.
A continued rebound by technology stocks contributed to higher close on Wall Street, with big-name companies like Tesla (TSLA), Netflix (NFLX), Oracle (ORCL) and Facebook (FB) posting standout gains.
However, trade was somewhat subdued ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement later today. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will listen for any tweaks to the accompanying statement. The Fed's latest economic projections may also be of note.
In economic news, the Fed said U.S. industrial production slowed more than expected in August. Also, the Labor Department noted an increase in U.S. import prices last month, with prices jumping by much more than expected.
Crude oil futures ended sharply higher Tuesday as news of the stoppage of energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Sally outweighed concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October rose $1.02 or 2.7 percent at $38.28 a barrel.
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