(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market moved higher again on Friday, one session after it had ended the two-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 270 points or 12 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 2,530-point plateau although it's expected to turn lower again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on coronavirus concerns, with profit taking expected following recent sessions of stimulus-generated buying. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in the red.
The STI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and plantations.
For the day, the index advanced 41.20 points or 1.66 percent to finish at 2,528.76 after trading between 2,511.21 and 2,561.37. Volume was 1.35 billion shares worth 1.92 billion Singapore dollars. There were 329 gainers and 147 decliners.
Among the actives, Genting Singapore skyrocketed 8.13 percent, while Singapore Airlines plummeted 6.46 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust surged 5.00 percent, CapitaLand Mall Trust soared 4.49 percent, Ascendas REIT spiked 4.12 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust accelerated 3.90 percent, CapitaLand Commercial Trust jumped 3.31 percent, Comfort DelGro climbed 2.65 percent, Thai Beverage gathered 2.52 percent, United Overseas Bank perked 2.43 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 2.41 percent, SingTel added 1.98 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gained 1.83 percent, CapitaLand rose 1.72 percent, Wilmar International increased 1.26 percent, Singapore Press Holdings climbed 1.10 percent, SembCorp Industries advanced 0.61 percent, Keppel Corp sank 0.55 percent, Singapore Exchange added 0.44 percent, DBS Group collected 0.42 percent and Singapore Technologies Engineering gained 0.33 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as stocks opened lower on Friday, staged a mild recovery in the afternoon but saw the losses accelerate going into the close.
The Dow tumbled 915.39 points or 4.06 percent to finish at 21,636.78, while the NASDAQ sank 295.16 points or 3.79 percent to 7,502.38 and the S&P 500 lost 88.60 points or 3.37 percent to 2,541.47. For the week, the Dow added 12.8 percent, the NASDAQ gained 9.1 percent and the S&P rose 10.3 percent.
The recovery attempt in afternoon trading came after the House passed the massive $2 trillion stimulus bill designed to respond to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Buying interest waned late in the session, however, leading traders to sell stocks once again amid uncertainty going into the weekend.
Lingering concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus also weighed on the markets, as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassed the number of cases in China or Italy.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Friday, losing for a second successive day on worries about the energy demand outlook. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down $1.09 or 4.8 percent at $21.51 a barrel.
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