Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.65%

The weakness on Wall Street could weigh on local sentiment.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 21.14 points or 0.65% higher to 3271.11 on Thursday, taking the year-to-date performance to +13.55%.

According to Singapore Exchange Market Summary, the top active stocks were Singtel, which declined 0.27%, DBS, which gained 2.10%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.96%, Noble Group, which declined 32.43% and UOB, with a 1.78% advance.

This came as U.S. equity benchmarks on closed lower, but well off their worst levels of the session, as a clutch of weaker-than-expected earnings reports and lingering concerns that President Donald Trump’s pro-business agenda may face delays sapped buying appetite, OCBC Investment Research said.

Meanwhile, eight out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Consumer Discretionary (-0.60%) and Financials (-0.53%) leading the declines while Consumer Staples (0.09%) and Health Care (0.05%) led the gains.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The weakness on Wall Street overnight could weigh on local sentiment today.

With the breaking of the key 3260 resistance yesterday, we peg the new hurdle at 3300, ahead of 3365.

On the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3250, followed by the next support level at 3200.

Overall volume shrank 4.5% with 2.1b units traded, while total value climbed 38.4% to S$1.8b, and average value/unit jumped 45.0% to S$0.87.