Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.48%

Weakness on Wall Street could keep overall sentiment fairly cautious.

OCBC said US stocks closed lower on Tuesday as the European Central Bank may reportedly scale back its bond purchases ahead of the March 2017 conclusion scheduled for its quantitative-easing program.

Ten out of 11 S&P 500 industries ended lower, with the Utilities leading the declines. OCBC noted that Financials was the only gainer among industries.

This weakness on Wall Street overnight could keep overall sentiment fairly cautious in Singapore and hence limit near-term upside, says OCBC.

STI ended 13.8 points or 0.48% higher to 2884.64, taking the year-to-date performance to +0.07%.

Here's more from OCBC:

We peg the immediate support at 2845, ahead of 2825; on the upside, we continue to peg the initial hurdle at 2900, ahead of 3000.

Overall volume gained 44.9% with 1.9b units traded, and the total value gained 25.8% to S$0.7b; while average value/unit was down 13% to S$0.39.”