The Singapore stock market has closed lower in five straight sessions, sinking almost 70 points or 2.3 percent in that span. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,080-point plateau and it may take further damage on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains soft amidst uncertainty over interest rates and the health of the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses are likely to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the properties and mixed performances from the financials and industrials.
For the day, the index sank 21.81 points or 0.70 percent to finish at 3,083.19 after trading between 3,081.50 and 3,107.52. Volume was 1.5 billion shares worth 1.3 billion Singapore dollars. There were 333 decliners and 203 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT fell 0.76 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust sank 1.05 percent, CapitaLand Investment dropped 1.19 percent, City Developments tanked 2.68 percent, Comfort DelGro and UOL Group both lost 0.79 percent, DBS Group added 0.45 percent, Genting Singapore and Mapletree Industrial Trust both skidded 1.27 percent, Keppel Corp declined 2.01 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust surrendered 2.31 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust weakened 1.31 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation slid 0.59 percent, SATS plunged 2.73 percent, SembCorp Industries stumbled 1.65 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering retreated 1.80 percent, SingTel shed 0.80 percent, Thai Beverage slumped 1.74 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.27 percent, Wilmar International tumbled 2.47 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 4.11 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding advanced 0.85 percent and Emperador, Hongkong Land, Keppel DC REIT and DFI Retail were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before a late slide saw them finish with mild losses.
The Dow shed 28.34 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 29,210.85, while the NASDAQ eased 9.09 points or 0.09 percent to close at 10,417.10 and the S&P 500 fell 11.81 points or 0.33 percent to end at 3,577.03.
The late downward push came after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest monetary policy meeting, which showed that members expect interest rates to remain high till prices come down.
The members also lowered their projections for the economy and expect GDP to grow at just a 0.2 percent annualized pace in 2022 and just 1.2 percent in 2023, well below trend and big drop from 2021, which saw the strongest gains since 1984.
Also, the Labor Department said the Producer Price Index for final demand in the U.S. increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in September, rising for the first time in three months.
Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, falling for a third straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand due to slowing global growth after OPEC cut its demand forecast for this year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $2.02 or 2.26 percent at $87.33 a barrel.