Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.27%

Any upside is likely to be limited.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8.45 points or 0.27% lower to 3179.06 on Tuesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +10.35%.

The top active stocks were Singtel, which declined 0.25%; ComfortDelGro, which gained 1.55%; DBS, which declined 0.88%; OCBC Bank, which declined 0.61%; and CapitaLand, which closed unchanged.

OCBC Investment Research said this came as US stocks fought off weakness to end marginally higher as energy shares rebounded in concert with oil prices. But market sentiment remained cautious ahead of a meeting later this week between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile, six out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher, led by Energy (0.74%)and Materials (0.40%) whilst Real Estate (-0.30%) and Financials (-0.20%) led the declines.

Here are the implications on Singapore:

The mild recovery on Wall Street overnight could provide some support to the local bourse today, but any gains likely to be limited.

We expect the market to swing between 3150 and 3200 for now, as investors await further market catalysts.

As before, we continue to peg the next resistance and support level at 3270 and 3100, respectively.

Overall volume shrank 24.5% with 1.8b units traded, and total value fell 20.4% to $0.9b, whilst average value/unit gained 5.5% to $0.49.