Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.14%

Year-to-date performance stood at 2.76%.

Singapore Exchange said:

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended +4.44 points higher or +0.14% to 3252.13, taking the year-to-date performance to +2.76%. The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index declined -0.55% while the FTSE ST Small Cap Index declined -0.63%. The top active stocks were UOB (+2.05%), DBS (+0.18%), Wilmar Intl (-3.89%), SingTel (+0.53%) and HanKore Env (-18.52%).

OCBC Investment Research said:

Despite the firmer Wall Street close, the local bourse could be in for a muted session ahead of the public holiday tomorrow. Furthermore, newsflow is expected to thin out as the 1Q earnings season draws to a close on 15 May.

While the index closed 0.1% higher on Friday, it ended just below the downtrend line since 24 Apr resistance sited at 3254. A failure to convincingly overcome the next hurdle at 3251 could lead to a pullback towards 3246 (middle of Bollinger Band).

The daily MACD is still falling towards the centre line and showing little sign of turning up yet; but RSI suggests that the market is not overbought. 

Still, should the STI clear 3276, it would trigger a parabolic buy signal, ahead of the next resistance at 3288 (upper Bollinger band).