Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.27%

Expect cheers in the local bourse today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8.92 points or 0.27% higher to 3264.21 on Monday, taking the year-to-date performance to +13.31%.

The SGX Daily Market Summary noted that the top active stocks were Singtel, which gained 0.81%, Genting Sing, which gained 6.48%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.66%, ComfortDelGro, which declined 5.20% and DBS, with a 0.44% advance.

Meanwhile, according to OCBC Investment Research, this came as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh records as a jump in oil prices to a two-week high lifted Wall Street sentiment.

Nine out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher, led by Materials (0.84%) and Financials (0.77%) while telecommunication Services (-0.24%) and Consumer Discretionary (-0.01%) lost ground.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The gains on Wall Street overnight could bring some cheer to the local sentiment today.

As before, we peg the initial hurdle at 3300, ahead of 3365; on the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3250, below it, the next support lies at 3200.

Overall volume jumped 27.7% with 2.8b units traded, while total value dipped 2.8% to S$1.4b, and average value/unit dropped 22.2% to S$0.50.