Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.27%

Expect more sideways trading for the STI , says analyst.

Singapore Exchange said:

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8.34 points higher or +0.27% to 3,154.84, taking the year-to-date performance to -0.39%.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index gained +0.23% while the FTSE ST Small Cap Index declined -0.01%. The top active stocks were SingTel (unchanged), Noble Group (unchanged), UOB (+0.49%), Keppel Corp (+0.56%) and Yangzijiang (+2.69%).

OCBC Investment Research said:

While US stocks staged a mild rebound overnight, we do not expect to see local sentiment getting too much of a boost, given that the STI was already up for the past two days.

And we are seeing some signs that the market is becoming quite frothy, as the focus has largely been on the penny stocks - note that the average value traded per share dropped sharply to S$0.20 from S$0.25 the previous day.

As before, we still see more sideways trading for the STI (with a slightly negative slant) ahead of the 17 Oct deadline for the raising of the US debt ceiling.

For now, immediate hurdle remains at 3173 (middle of Bollinger Band), ahead recent highs around 3260-3277 region.

We peg the initial support at 3100, ahead of 3051-3071 gap.