(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in four straight trading days, sinking almost 70 points or 2.3 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,165-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on fears of lockdown measures following the rapid spread of a new COVID variant. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index tumbled 55.25 points or 1.72 percent to finish at 3,166.27 after trading between 3,153.71 and 3,208.13. Volume was 2 billion shares worth 1.8 billion Singapore dollars. There were 406 decliners and 138 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT lost 1.31 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tumbled 2.67 percent, City Developments dipped 0.98 percent, Comfort DelGro retreated 2.00 percent, Dairy Farm International was down 0.62 percent, DBS Group stumbled 1.68 percent, Genting Singapore plummeted 4.22 percent, Keppel Corp and SembCorp Industries both dropped 1.49 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust shed 1.40 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust slid 1.03 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation weakened 1.62 percent, SATS declined 2.21 percent, Singapore Airlines plunged 3.81 percent, Singapore Exchange slipped 0.76 percent, Singapore Press Holdings eased 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering skidded 1.79 percent, SingTel fell 1.21 percent, Thai Beverage tanked 2.80 percent, United Overseas Bank slumped 1.63 percent, Wilmar International surrendered 2.31 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 1.52 percent.
The lead from Wall Street suggests heavy selling pressure as the major averages opened sharpy lower on Friday and remained that way throughout the session.
The Dow plummeted 905.04 points or 2.53 percent to finish at 34,899.34, while the NASDAQ plunged 353.57 points or 2.23 percent to close at 15,491.66 and the S&P 500 tumbled 106.84 points or 2.27 percent to end at 4,594.62.
For the week, the NASDAQ dropped 3.5 percent, the Dow sank 2.2 percent and the S&P retreated 2.0 percent.
The sell-off on Wall Street followed reports a new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa. The news, which comes amid a surge in new Covid-19 cases in Europe, raised concerns the pandemic could continue to wreak havoc on the global economy.
Crude oil prices plummeted on Friday, sending the most active crude futures contract to their biggest single-session fall this year as reports of the new coronavirus variant raised concerns about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $10.24 or 13 percent at $68.15 a barrel, the biggest single-session loss since April 2020.
Closer to home, Singapore will see October figures for import, export and producer prices later today. In September, import prices were up 16.1 percent on year, while export prices jumped 17.3 percent and producer prices spiked 21.3 percent.
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