Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.27%

Expect more gains today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8.55 points or 0.27% higher to 3231.24 on Wednesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +12.17%.

According to SGX Market Summary, the top active stocks were Singtel, which declined 0.27%, DBS, which closed unchanged, UOB, which gained 0.69%, Noble, which declined 8.33% and OCBC Bank, with a 0.58% advance.

OCBC Investment Research said this came as the S&P 500 gained ground for a fifth consecutive session to close at a record as minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed broad agreement on plans to begin shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet and also pointed to a likely rate increase next month, as widely expected.

Meanwhile, eight out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher. The best performers were Materials (0.69%) and Utilities (0.68%) and worst performers were Telecommunication Services (-0.67%) and Energy (-0.44%).

Here’s more OCBC Investment Research:

Continued strength on Wall Street overnight could keep local sentiment fairly upbeat, potentially extending STI’s gains.

As before, the initial hurdle is pegged at 3250, ahead of 3300; on the downside, we keep the immediate support at 3200, ahead of 3170.

Overall volume shrank 1.5% with 2.0b units traded, and total value fell 12.2% to S$1.0b, and average value/unit dipped 10.8% to S$0.50.