The Singapore stock market headed south again on Monday, one session after ending the seven-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 135 points or 4.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,100-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic, with support expected from the financials, technology stocks and oil companies. The European markets were solidly higher and the U.S. bourses were off on holiday and the Asian markets figure to open in the green.
The STI finished barely lower on Monday following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financials and industrials.
For the day, the index eased 1.69 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 3,096.40 after trading between 3,086.45 and 3,104.25. Volume was 1.02 billion shares worth 813.5 million Singapore dollars. There were 273 decliners and 233 gainers.
Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust retreated 0.93 percent, while CapitaLand Investment tanked 2.30 percent, City Developments sank 0.49 percent, Comfort DelGro tumbled 1.42 percent, DBS Group was up 0.07 percent, Hongkong Land plummeted 3.60 percent, Keppel Corp gathered 0.30 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust gained 0.56 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust slumped 0.61 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation fell 0.18 percent, SATS climbed1.28 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.46 percent, Singapore Exchange increased 0.11 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rose 0.51 percent, SingTel advanced 1.21 percent, Thai Beverage added 0.77 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.04 percent, Yangzijiang Financial improved 1.11 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged 2.53 percent and Wilmar International, Genting Singapore, Ascendas REIT and Mapletree Industrial Trust were unchanged.
Wall Street and many of the commodity markets were off on Monday for the Juneteenth holiday, but the European markets finished with solid gains.
Germany's DAX jumped 139.34 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 13,265..60, London's FTSE spiked 105.56 points or 1.50 percent to close at 7,121.81 and the CAC 40 in France gained 37.44 points or 0.64 percent to end at 5,920.09.
Bargain hunting was a big part of that following the weakness from last week that were fueled by worries about a recession and bets of bigger interest-rate hikes from major central banks.
The rally was also fueled by European Central bank President Christine Lagarde, who reaffirmed on Monday that the ECB will hike interest rates by 25 basis points twice this summer to fight inflation. Investors had worried that sharper rate hikes might be on the docket, sparking recession concerns.
Investors also await a congressional appearance by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell this week that could highlight the U.S. central bank's resolve to guide inflation back to the Fed's 2 percent target.