Singapore Stock Market May Extend Wednesday's Gains

The Singapore stock market on Wednesday ended the three-day losing streak in which it had stumbled almost 50 points or 1.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 2,650-point plateau and it may see additional support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism for a coronavirus treatment. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are tipped to follow that lead.

The STI finished sharply higher on Wednesday following gains from the financial shares and property stocks.

For the day, the index jumped 28.71 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 2,648.90 after trading between 2,641.80 and 2,658.90. There were 251 gainers and 226 decliners.

Among the actives, SATS surged 3.28 percent, while City Developments soared 2.66 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spiked 2.14 percent, Wilmar International accelerated 2.13 percent, CapitaLand jumped 2.11 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust climbed 2.01 percent, DBS Group gathered 1.86 percent, CapitaLand Commercial Trust perked 1.70 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering rallied 1.54 percent, Comfort DelGro advanced 1.37 percent, Singapore Airlines added 1.34 percent, Genting Singapore gained 1.29 percent, Ascendas REIT rose 1.21 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation increased 1.20 percent, Keppel Corp improved 1.17 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 1.11 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.92 percent, Singapore Exchange was up 0.85 percent, SingTel added 0.79 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust gained 0.52 percent, CapitaLand Mall Trust rose 0.49 percent and Thai Beverage and Singapore Press Holdings were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is firm as stocks fluctuated on Wednesday maintained a positive bias before ending mostly higher.

The Dow jumped 227.51 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 26,870.10, while the NASDAQ gained 61.92 points or 0.59 percent to end at 10,550.49 and the S&P 500 rose 29.04 points or 0.91 percent to close at 3,226.56.

The continued strength on Wall Street came as upbeat news on the coronavirus vaccine front helped traders shrug off a record single-day spike in new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. Biotech firm Moderna (MRNA) said its experimental vaccine was safe and produced strong immune responses in all 45 patients in an early-stage human trial.

Upbeat earnings news from Goldman Sachs (GS) added to the positive sentiment, with the financial giant reporting much stronger than expected second quarter results.

Crude oil futures ended firmly higher Wednesday after data showed a marked decline in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for August ended up $0.91 or 2.3 percent at $41.20 a barrel, the highest settlement since March 6.