The Singapore stock market on Friday halted the five-day losing streak in which it had tumbled more than 165 points or 5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,295-point plateau and it's due for additional support on Monday.
The global forecast calls for volatility amidst the ongoing and very fluid Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting sanctions and threats of nuclear deployment. The European and U.S.marketswere sharply higher on Friday and the Asian bourses are tipped to at least open higher on Monday.
The STI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the industrials and mixed performances from the financials and properties.
For the day, the index gained 18.41 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 3,294.47 after trading between 3,286.72 and 3,332.66. Volume was 1.5 billion shares worth 2.3 billion Singapore dollars. There were 327 gainers and 159 decliners.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT was up 0.36 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust rose 0.47 percent, City Developments jumped 1.85 percent, Comfort DelGro retreated 1.39 percent, Dairy Farm International advanced 0.76 percent, DBS Group collected 0.58 percent, Genting Singapore gained 0.65 percent, Hongkong Land lost 0.36 percent, Keppel Corp strengthened 1.71 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust increased 0.56 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation declined 1.25 percent, SATS rallied 2.02 percent, SembCorp Industries surged 4.49 percent, Singapore Airlines spiked 2.63 percent, Singapore Exchange improved 0.64 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.26 percent, SingTel soared 2.77 percent, Thai Beverage added 0.74 percent, United Overseas Bank shed 0.59 percent, Wilmar International climbed 1.14 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding accelerated 2.19 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust and Singapore Press Holdings were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages shook off a subdued open on Friday and accelerated as the day progressed, finishing near session highs.
The Dow surged 834.95 points or 2.51 percent to finish at 34,058.75, while the NASDAQ soared 221.02 points or 1.64 percent to end at 13,694.62 and the S&P 500 jumped 95.95 points or 2.24 percent to close at 4,384.65. For the week, the Dow eased 0.1 percent, the NASDAQ gained 1.1 percent and the S&P rose 0.8 percent.
The rally on Wall Street came as traders continued to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the sell-off in recent sessions on concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The response over the weekend saw an increasing wave of sanctions against Russia, including disruptions to energy flows and financial access.
Crude oil futures settled lower Friday but posted a weekly gain as traders weighed the possibility of disruptions to global crude supplies due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April ended down by $1.22 or about 1.3 percent at $91.59 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will provide January figures for import, export ad producer prices later today. In December, import prices were up 14.4 percent on year, export prices rose 21.1 percent on year and producer prices jumped 22.0 percent on year.