Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.91%

But don't expect a boost today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 28.01 points or 0.91% higher to 3122.2, taking the year-to-date performance to +8.38%.

The top active stocks today were DBS, which gained 1.57%, UOB, which gained 2.11%, OCBC Bank, which gained 1.90%, Wilmar Intl, which declined 0.79% and Singtel, with a 0.76% advance.  

According to OCBC, this came as Dow on Wednesday eked out a slight gain to log its best record-setting streak in three decades, but the broader equity benchmarks struggled as Federal Reserve minutes implied that the central bank is comfortable with raising interest rates “fairly soon.”

Meanwhile, five S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Energy (-1.58%) leading the losses while Utilities (0.41%) led the gains.

"The muted closing on Wall Street overnight is unlikely to provide much in terms of cues for the local bourse this morning," OCBC said.

Here's more from OCBC:

We peg 3140 as our immediate resistance. This is followed by the critical support at 3165. On the flip side, the immediate support is set at 3100, ahead of 3070.

Overall volume shrank 11.0% with 2.6b units traded, while total value climbed 20.18% to S$1.4b, and average value/unit added 35.0% to S$055.