Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.59%

Expect more losses today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 18.05 points or 0.59% lower to 3046.8 on Tuesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +5.69%.

The top active stocks today were DBS, which declined 1.04%, Singtel, which declined 0.51%, OCBC Bank, which declined 0.64%, UOB, which declined 0.38% and Global Logistic, with a 0.76% fall.

According to OCBC, this came as U.S. stocks trimmed earlier losses but still ended mostly lower on Tuesday, as declines in industrial, technology and financials shares outweighed gains in health-care and utilities sectors.

Meanwhile, six out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Industrials (-0.93%) leading the losses while Utilities (1.62%) led the gains.

"The continued weakness on Wall Street overnight could weigh on the local bourse, potentially extending STI’s losses in the previous session," OCBC said.

Here's more from the brokerage firm:

With today’s tone likely to be cautious, we expect the STI to hold around 3000 to 3065 and keep the next support and resistance level at 2940 and 3100 respectively.

Overall volume rose 49.2% with 1.3b units traded, and total value surged 82.5% to S$1.0b, while average value/unit added 22.3% to S$0.81.