Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.08%

Expect the market to remain muted today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 2.61 points or 0.08% lower to 3288.95, taking the year-to-date performance to +14.17%.

The top active stocks today were Singtel, which closed unchanged, DBS, which gained 0.14%, CityDev, which gained 0.85%, YZJ Shipbldg SGD, which declined 2.01% and OCBC Bank, with a 0.26% fall.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index gained 0.18%, whilst the FTSE ST Small Cap Index rose 0.16%.

All main U.S. stock indexes closed higher on Tuesday, with the Dow finishing at its 47th record for 2017, as optimism appeared to grow ahead of the start of the earnings season, which will provide concrete insight into the state of U.S. corporations.

Out of 11 S&P 500 industries, 10 finished higher, led by Consumer Staples, which grew 0.99%, and Utilities, which grew 0.98%, whilst Consumer Discretionary bucked the trend and dipped 0.11%.

"The overnight recovery on Wall Street could provide some cheer to the local sentiment, but given the lack of strong catalyst, the STI is likely to remain largely range-bound for now," OCBC said.