Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.79%

Expect some good news today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 27.77 points or 0.79% lower to 3488.46, taking the year-to-date performance to +2.51%.

The top active stocks were DBS, which declined 1.53%, UOB, which declined 0.29%, Sembcorp Marine, which declined 11.41%, OCBC Bank, which gained 0.77% and Singtel, with a 0.59% fall.

The FTSE ST Mid Cap Index declined 1.44%, whilst the FTSE ST Small Cap Index declined 0.97%.

OCBC Investment Research noted that the Dow and the S&P 500 closed higher on Thursday following upbeat data on the labour market which may have momentarily offset investors’ jitters over climbing inflation and rising bond yields.

Nine out of 11 S&P 500 industries closed higher, led by Real Estate (1.14%) and Energy (1.08%) while Financials (-0.78%) and Health Care (-0.15%) bucked the trend.

“The recovery on Wall Street overnight is likely to bring some cheer to the local bourse today,” OCBC said.