Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.27%

But expect markets to be fairly cautious today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8 points or 0.27% higher to 3008.22 on Thursday, taking the year-to-date performance to +4.35%.

The top active stocks today were CapitaLand, which gained 1.92%, DBS, which gained 0.44%, Singtel, which gained 0.27%, Global Logistic, which closed unchanged and UOB, with a 0.10% advance.

OCBC said this came as the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday suffered its worst losing streak since November as investors remained cautious a day ahead of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

Meanwhile, nine out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, led by Real Estate (-0.99%) while Industrials (0.59%) and Telecommunication Services (0.32%) gained.

"The STI index managed to hold its ground above 3000 immediate support yesterday, but the weakness on Wall Street overnight is likely to keep local sentiment fairly cautious today," OCBC said.

Here's more from OCBC:

On the upside, we peg the initial hurdle at 3040, ahead of its subsequent base at 3065. On the downside, we peg the immediate support at 2980, ahead of 2940.

Overall volume climbed 22.5% with 1.9b units traded, while total value fell 8.7% to S$0.9b, and average value/unit dipped 25.5% to S$0.49.