(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 30 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,800-point plateau and it's expected to open under water again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on weakness from the technology stocks and ahead of key U.S. inflation data later in the week. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished barely lower on Monday following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financials and industrials.
For the day, the index eased 1.24 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 3,794.92 after trading between 3,786.05 and 3,799.23.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding both slid 0.37 percent, while City Developments fell 0.38 percent, DBS Group eased 0.07 percent, Emperador jumped 1.20 percent, Genting Singapore sank 0.64 percent, Hongkong Land shed 0.63 percent, Keppel DC REIT lost 0.45 percent, Keppel Ltd gained 0.59 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust stumbled 0.88 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation advanced 0.85 percent, SATS dropped 0.80 percent, SembCorp Industries added 0.72 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 0.66 percent, SingTel rallied 1.32 percent and Thai Beverage, Wilmar International, Yangzijiang Financial, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Seatrium Limited, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Comfort DelGro were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Monday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way for the balance of the session.
The Dow dropped 240.59 points or 0.54 percent to finish at 44,401.93, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.0.8 points or 0.62 percent to end at 19,736.69 and the S&P 500 sank 37.42 points or 0.61 percent to close at 6,052.85.
A slump by shares of Nvidia (NVDA) weighed on the markets, with the AI darling tumbling by 2.6 percent amid news a Chinese regulator has launched an investigation into whether the chipmaker violated antimonopoly laws.
The weakness on Wall Street also came as traders looked ahead to the release of closely watched U.S. inflation data later in the week.
While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower rates by another 25 basis points next week, there is some uncertainty about whether the central bank will continue cutting rates next year.
Oil prices climbed higher on geopolitical tensions and optimism that the Chinese central bank will loosen its monetary policy to boost economic growth. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.17 or 1.74 percent at $68.37 a barrel.
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