Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.16%

Despite Wall Street’s gains, local bourse is likely to remain cautious.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 5.26 points or 0.16% lower to 3230.49 on Wednesday, taking the year-to-date performance to +12.14%.

The top active stocks today were Singtel, which declined 0.79%, DBS, which declined 0.29%, UOB, which gained 0.65%, OCBC Bank, which declined 0.19% and CapitaLand Mall Trust, with a 1.02% fall.

OCBC Investment Research said this came with the U.S. stocks closed slightly higher as the financial sector helped to cap a sharp drop in energy shares, ahead of potentially market moving events on Thursday, including the U.K. election and former FBI director James Comey Senate testimony.

Meanwhile, eight out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher, led by Financials (0.82%) and Real Estate (0.47%) while Energy (-1.48%) and Industrials (-0.14%) led the declines.

Here’s more from OCBC Investment Research:

Despite the mild recovery on Wall Street overnight, the overall tone is likely to remain cautious today, limiting any upside.

As before, the immediate resistance lies at 3250. Above it, we maintain the next hurdle at 3300. On the downside, we keep the immediate support at 3200, ahead of 3170.

Overall volume jumped 19.1% with 1.9b units traded, and total value climbed 14.7% to S$1.0b, while average value/unit fell 3.7% to S$0.53.