Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.13%

Expect a boost today thanks to Wall Street’s gains.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 4.05 points or 0.13% higher to 3240.01 on Friday, taking the year-to-date performance to +12.47%.

The top active stocks were DBS, which declined 0.82%, Singtel, which gained 0.26%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.19%, Ascendas REIT, which gained 1.89% and UOB, with a 0.56% advance.

OCBC Investment Research said this came as the US stock-market indexes closed at records Friday, led by gains for technology shares as investors looked past a weaker-than-expected May jobs report.

Meanwhile, eight out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher, led by Information Technology (1.04%) while Energy (-1.18%) led the declines. The index advanced 1.16% for the month.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The continued gains on Wall Street Friday could provide some support to the local bourse this morning. However, the overall tone is likely to be cautious this week, ahead of the UK election and the ECB monetary-policy meeting.

We peg the initial hurdle at 3250, ahead of 3300; on the downside, the immediate support lies at 3200, followed by the next support level at 3170.

Overall volume dwindled 10.5% with 1.9b units traded, and total value dipped 24.6% to S$1.0b, while average value/unit fell 15.7 % to S$0.51.