Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.08%

Don’t expect any boost today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 2.51 points or 0.08% lower to 3176.55 on Wednesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +10.27%.

The top active stocks were DBS, which declined 0.10%; OCBC Bank, which declined 0.21%; Singtel, which closed unchanged, UOB which declined 0.27%; and CapitaLand, with a 0.55% advance.

According to OCBC Investment Research, this came as US stocks ended lower, suffering a late selloff after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting showed policy makers plan to begin unwinding the central bank’s gigantic balance sheet before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, nine out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, led by Financials (-0.70%) and Telecommunication Services (-0.42%) whilst Utilities (0.53%) and Real Estate (0.16%) gained.

Here are the implications on Singapore:

The weakness on Wall Street overnight could dampen local sentiment.

We expect the market to remain cautious as investors wait for clues from the two-day summit between Trump and China’s President Xi.

On the upside, we keep the initial hurdle at 3200, ahead of 3270; on the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3150, ahead of 3100.

Overall volume surged 77.7% with 3.1b units traded, and total value jumped 36.6% to $1.2b, whilst average value/unit fell 23.1% to $0.38.