The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 45 points or 1.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,130-point plateau although it may tick higher again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, again supported by oil and technology companies. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The STI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following mixed performances from the financial shares and industrial stocks.
For the day, the index dipped 4.89 points or 0.16 percent to finish at 3,129.77 after trading between 3,124.31 and 3,140.75. Volume was 1.11 billion shares worth 1.04 billion Singapore dollars. There were 223 gainers and 202 decliners.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 0.49 percent, while City Developments was up 0.14 percent, Comfort DelGro retreated 0.71 percent, DBS Group dipped 0.22 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.65 percent, Keppel Corp rose 0.39 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.26 percent, SATS tanked 1.27 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.00 percent, Singapore Airlines gained 0.40 percent, Singapore Exchange declined 0.95 percent, Singapore Press Holdings lost 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering skidded 0.53 percent, SingTel jumped 1.24 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.41 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.48 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 1.52 percent and Dairy Farm International, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, Ascendas REIT and Thai Beverage were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, shook off a midday slump and finished in the green.
The Dow added 35.32 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 35,754.75, while the NASDAQ jumped 100.07 points or 0.64 percent to end at 15,786.99 and the S&P 500 rose 14.46 points or 0.31 percent to close at 4,701.21.
The choppy trading seen for most of the day came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following recent volatility.
With concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant easing, traders are now looking ahead to next week's Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. Reports suggest the Fed could decide to double the pace of tapering its asset purchase program to $30 billion per month.
Some positive sentiment was generated by comments from Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) regarding the effectiveness of their Covid vaccine as preliminary laboratory studies have demonstrated that three doses of their vaccine neutralize the Omicron variant.
Crude oil futures settled higher on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a drop in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $0.31 or 0.4 percent at $72.36 a barrel.