Singapore Stock Market May Find Traction On Tuesday

Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Singapore stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, shedding almost 20 points or 0.6 percent in that span. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,140-point plateau although it may find mild support on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with many countries still off for the Lunar New Year holiday. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly lower in Friday’s half-day session following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial issues.

For the day, the index slipped 4.61 points or 0.15 percent to finish at the daily high of 3,138.30 after moving as low as 3,117.46.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT surged 2.22 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.50 percent, City Developments and Thai Beverage both slumped 1.00 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.71 percent, DBS Group collected 0.25 percent, Emperador rallied 1.00 percent, Genting Singapore soared 2.00 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 2.16 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.28 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.42 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.23 percent, SATS shed 0.37 percent, Seatrium Limited plunged 3.33 percent, SembCorp Industries skidded 0.72 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.27 percent, Wilmar International plummeted 4.29 percent, Yangzijiang Financial jumped 1.61 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.61 percent and CapitaLand Investment, Keppel DC REIT, Frasers Logistics, SingTel, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened flat, quickly moved higher but then faded, with only the Dow holding its gains and hitting a fresh record close.

The Dow gained 125.69…