Singapore Markets Morning Briefing - what you need to know for Mon Feb 6, 2012

The bourse is expected to start the week right following positive results from US stocks and the Nikkei.

OCBC Investment Research said:

With US stocks surging more than 1% higher on Friday night and the Nikkei having a similarly strong start (+1.2% now), these are likely to provide inspiration for the local bourse this morning.

As a recap, the STI attempted again to overcome the 2916 key resistance in the last session (surged as much as 1.1%) but fell short of convincingly clearing it as it closed just 0.6% higher at 2917 by the end of the session.

But with today's outlook likely to turn sharply upside biased, we could see the index gapping up at the open and overcome the immediate resistance at 2931 (Friday's intraday high) with relative ease, before heading towards the subsequent key obstacle the 3000 psychological resistance.

On the downside, we still see the immediate support at around 2874 (recent minor trough), followed by the 2852-2860 gap support which is now the secondary base.

Meanwhile GFT reported:

Currencies and equities ended the week on a strong note thanks to the better than expected U.S. labor market report. All of the major currencies traded higher against the U.S. dollar on Friday with the exception of the Swiss Franc which came under pressure after SNB acting Chairman Jordan promised to defend the 1.20 EUR/CHF peg with “utmost determination.”