The Singapore stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after halting the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 25 points or 0.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,255-point plateau, although it's likely to bounce higher again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic as some traders believe the heavy selling in recent sessions has been overdone. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished modestly lower on Monday following losses from the industrials and mixed performances from the financials and properties.
For the day, the index slipped 11.98 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 3,256.31 after trading between 3,252.21 and 3,274.47. Volume was 1.02 billion shares worth 811 million Singapore dollars. There were 295 decliners and 188 gainers.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.48 percent, while CapitaLand Investment and Hongkong Land both skidded 0.82 percent, City Developments added 0.49 percent, DBS Group shed 0.45 percent, Genting Singapore declined 1.23 percent, Keppel Corp plunged 1.64 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust sank 0.53 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 1.18 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 0.40 percent, SATS rose 0.25 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.24 percent, Singapore Exchange slumped 0.83 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.08 percent, SingTel fell 0.37 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.18 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.50 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tanked 1.28 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 1.94 percent and Ascendas REIT, Thai Beverage, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Comfort DelGro and Jardine Matheson were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street ends up positive as the major averages opened lower on Monday, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before ending in the green.
The Dow jumped 197.26 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 31,019.68, while the NASDAQ jumped 86.62 points or 0.76 percent to close at 11,535.02 and the S&O 500 gained 26.56 points or 0.69 percent to end at 3,899.89.
Trading activity was subdued as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's highly anticipated monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points, although some see an outside chance for a 100 basis point rate hike.
A number of other major central banks around the world are also scheduled to announce their latest monetary policy decisions this week, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan.
Traders largely shrugged off a report from the National Association of Home Builders showing U.S. homebuilder confidence declined for the ninth consecutive month in September.
Oil prices recovered Monday after falling sharply, rebounding to end on a firm note amid concerns about supplies. A fairly steady dollar amid possible sharp hikes in interest rates limited oil's upside. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $0.62 or 0.7 percent at $85.73 a barrel.