The Singapore stock market on Monday snapped the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,135-point plateau and it's expected to extend its gains om Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, supported by oil and technology shares - while concerns over the surging Omicron variant of the coronavirus is likely to cap the upside. 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 higher on Monday following gains from the financial shares and industrial issues.
For the day, the index gained 10.57 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 3,134.25 after trading between 3,127.60 and 3,138.27. Volume was 1.17 billion shares worth 676.3 million Singapore dollars. There were 240 gainers and 219 decliners.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT was up 0.34 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.49 percent, City Developments spiked 1.03 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.71 percent, Dairy Farm International surged 2.45 percent, DBS Group and Singapore Airlines both improved 0.40 percent, Genting Singapore added 0.65 percent, Keppel Corp jumped 0.98 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust plummeted 4.00 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust retreated 1.05 percent, SembCorp Industries rose 0.50 percent, Singapore Exchange climbed 0.86 percent, SingTel increased 0.43 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.11 percent, Wilmar International gathered 0.72 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.75 percent and Singapore Technologies Engineering, Thai Beverage, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, SATS and Singapore Press Holdings were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Monday and generally picked up steam as the session progressed.
The Dow spiked 246.76 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 36,585.06, while the NASDAQ jumped 187.83 points or 1.20 percent to close at 15,832.80 and the S&P 500 gained 30.38 points or 0.64 percent to end at 4,796.56.
The rally on Wall Street came as optimism about growth outweighed concerns about the Omicron variant in several countries, including the U.S.
But activity was somewhat subdued with investors looking ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting later this week.
In economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. construction spending increased 0.4 percent in November amid strong gains in single-family homebuilding, although outlays on public projects were weak.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Monday on reports that Libya, one of OPEC's more important oil drillers, will likely lose about 200,000 barrels daily in output over the next week because of a damaged pipeline. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February ended up by $0.87 or 1.2 percent at $76.08 a barrel.