(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 30 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,240-point plateau and it figures to remain rangebound on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity amid a lack of catalysts, although mild support from crude oil prices should limit any downside. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were barely lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and industrial issues.
For the day, the index added 12.13 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 3,240.58 after trading between 3,222.47 and 3,241.85. Volume was 1.9 billion shares worth 1.1 billion Singapore dollars. There were 244 gainers and 211 decliners. Among the actives, Ascendas REIT improved 0.32 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.46 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.66 percent, Dairy Farm International lost 0.30 percent, DBS Group and Venture Group both gained 0.47 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.61 percent, Keppel Corp increased 0.38 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust perked 0.51 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gathered 0.59 percent, SATS tumbled 0.97 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 0.49 percent, Singapore Airlines soared 0.94 percent, Singapore Exchange dipped 0.10 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering surged 1.55 percent, Thai Beverage advanced 0.69 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.40 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 0.78 percent and CapitaLand, City Developments, Jardine Cycle, Wilmar International, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Singapore Press Holdings and SingTel were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened higher on Monday but quickly faded, spending the rest of the session hugging the unchanged line and ending barely in the red.
The Dow shed 12.86 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 36,087.45, while the NASDAQ dipped 7.11 points or 0.04 percent to close at 15,853.85 and the S&P 500 eased 0.05 points or 0.00 percent to end at 4,682.80.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets.
Concerns about inflation continued to weigh on investors' minds after last week's report showing consumer prices increased at their fastest annual rate in over thirty years in October. The elevated pace of inflation has led to worries that the Federal Reserve might be forced to accelerate its plans to begin tightening monetary policy.
In U.S. economic news, the New York Federal Reserve reported that New York manufacturing activity grew strongly in November.
Crude oil futures settled marginally higher Monday after plunging earlier in the session on expectations of higher supplies and weakening demand. The dollar's climb to a 16-month high also weighed on oil prices early on in the session. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.09 or 0.1 percent at $80.88 a barrel.