Singapore Bourse May See Additional Support On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Singapore stock market ticked higher again, one session after ending the four-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 80 points or 1.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 4,940-point plateau and it's expected to open to the upside again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive, supported by technology and oil stocks. The European and US. Markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The STI finished barely higher on Monday as gains from the industrials were offset by weakness from the financial sector.

For the day, the index perked 0.80 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 4,938.58 after trading between 4,920.96 and 4,941.42.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT was up 0.37 percent, while City Developments shed 0.31 percent, DBS Group lost 0.30 percent, DFI Retail Group added 0.49 percent, Hongkong Land eased 0.12 percent, Keppel DC REIT and Frasers Centrepoint Trust both rose 0.44 percent, Keppel Ltd surged 1.98 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 0.69 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust climbed 0.99 percent, SATS vaulted 1.03 percent, Seatrium Limited gained 0.48 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.80 percent, Singapore Airlines improved 0.57 percent, Singapore Exchange dropped 0.83 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering increased 0.50 percent, SingTel stumbled 1.43 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 1.06 percent, United Overseas Bank was down 0.21 percent, UOL Group slumped 0.99 percent, Wilmar International fell 0.28 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 1.17 percent and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, CapitaLand Investment, Genting Singapore, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and Mapletree Logistics Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday, slumped later in the day but still moved solidly back to the upside by the close.

The Dow gained 129.47 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 49,662.66, while the NASDAQ jumped 175.25 points or 0.78 percent to close at 22,753.63 and the S&P 500 added 38.09 points or 0.56 percent to end at 6,881.31.

The early strength on Wall Street came as shares of Nvidia (NVDA) surged after the AI chipmaker announced a multi-year, multi-generational strategic partnership with Facebook parent Meta (META) spanning on-premises, cloud and AI infrastructure.

Positive sentiment was also generated some upbeat U.S. economic data, including a Federal Reserve report showing industrial production increased more than expected in January.

However, stocks pulled back off their highs after the release of the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting, which said officials remain divided on the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil prices skyrocketed on Wednesday after reports that Iran failed to address core U.S. demands in nuclear talks earlier this week. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery soared $2.73 or 4.4 percent to $64.99 a barrel.