On Friday, the three-day rise of the Singapore stock market, which had seen almost 50 points or 1.6% gain, came to a halt. The Straits Times Index (STI) is now slightly above the 3,170-point level, with expectations of further pressure on Monday's opening.
The international financial outlook suggests a cautious approach to Asian markets in light of the upcoming meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this week. European markets demonstrated mixed and flat results, whereas the US markets exhibited a decline, resulting in an expected division within Asian markets.
The STI concluded modestly lower on Friday due to losses from industrial stocks and mixed results from the finance and property sector. For that day, the index dropped 13.44 points or 0.42% to conclude at 3,172.96, after fluctuating between 3,155.31 and 3,180.52.
Noteworthy performers included Ascendas REIT which fell by 1.48%, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust declining 1.54%, and CapitaLand Investment plummeting 2.20%. Conversely, Comfort DelGro rallied 1.46%, and DBS Group rose by 0.14%.
Wall Street took a negative lead as major indices opened lower on Friday and stayed that way for the entire trading day. Key players such as the Dow and the NASDAQ fell 0.49% and 0.96% respectively, contributing to the apprehension over the prospective direction of interest rates prior to this week's Federal financial meeting.
Despite unanimously expected unchanged interest rates by the Fed, traders will examine the accompanying statement for hints on rate predictions. Recent inflation rates higher than anticipated have tarnished the optimism for the Fed's initial rate reduction potentially happening in June.
Economic indicators such as the Labor Department's report showed in-line increases in US import prices in February, however, export prices exceeded expectations. The Fed also reported a slight boost in US industrial production in February.
Oil prices, having recently hit multi-month highs, saw a decrease on Friday due principally to profit realization after substantial recent gains. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil future rates for April ended by falling $0.22 to $81.04 a barrel.
Significantly, Singapore is to release February data for non-oil domestic exports later this morning. Based on January's data, exports rose 2.3% month-on-month and 16.8% year-on-year.
