Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.4%

Local sentiment could remain cautious today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 12.99 points or 0.4% higher to 3249.97 on Wednesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +12.82%.

The daily market summary of Singapore Exchange revealed that the top active stocks were Singtel, which closed unchanged, OCBC Bank, which gained 1.55%, DBS, which gained 0.99%, UOB, which gained 0.47% and HongkongLand USD, with a 0.91% fall.

According to OCBC Investment Research, this came as the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at a record for the fourth session in a row Wednesday while the Dow industrials slipped lower as the stunning firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey stoked questions about President Donald Trump’s ability to build enough consensus in Washington to implement market-friendly policies.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The mixed performance on Wall Street overnight could cause local sentiment to be fairly cautious today.

On the upside, we keep the initial hurdle at 3260, ahead of 3300; on the downside, the immediate support remains at 3200, ahead of 3170.

Overall volume shrank 15.5% with 2.2b units traded, while total value climbed 0.9% to S$1.3b, and average value/unit jumped 19.4% to S$0.60.