Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.22%

But don't expect any boost today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 7.25 points or 0.22% higher to 3236.98 on Monday, taking the year-to-date performance to +12.37%.

The top active stocks were Singtel, which declined 0.80%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.78%, DBS, which declined 0.59%, UOB, which gained 0.39% and CapitaLand, with a 1.11% advance.

OCBC Investment Research said this came as the S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite notched records, but major U.S. equity indexes finished little-changed as materials shares capped a climb in the energy sector.

Meanwhile, seven out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Materials (-0.90%) and Health Care (-0.57%) leading the declines while Energy (0.71%) and Information Technology (0.42%) led the gains.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The mild gains on Wall Street overnight are unlikely to provide much of a boost to the local bourse this morning.

We think the market is likely to be range-bound between 3200 and 3260 for now, and keep the next resistance and support at 3300 and 3170 respectively.

Overall volume shrank 37.5% with 2.6b units traded, while total value climbed 14.8% to S$1.3b, and average value/unit jumped 83.5% to S$0.50.