Ahead of Friday's holiday for Eid-ul-Fitr, the Singapore stock market had moved lower in three straight sessions, surrendering almost 85 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,355-point plateau and it may take further damage again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on growing fears of a trade war between the United States and China. The European and U.S. markets were down on Friday and the Asian bourses figure to open in similar fashion.
The STI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financials, industrials and properties - although the plantations offered mild support.
For the day, the index dropped 35.78 points or 1.05 percent to finish at 3,356.73 after trading between 3,345.18 and 3,388.88. Volume was 2.6 billion shares worth 2.06 billion Singapore dollars. There were 277 decliners and 154 gainers.
Among the actives, Genting Singapore plummeted 4.69 percent, while Comfort DelGro plunged 4.53 percent, Thai Beverage surged 4.49 percent, Golden Agri-Resources spiked 3.23 percent, CapitaLand Commercial Trust tumbled 2.96 percent, DBS Group skidded 1.95 percent, CapitaLand Mall Trust dropped 1.93 percent, Ascendas REIT retreated 1.87 percent, SembCorp Industries declined 1.75 percent, Hutchison Port Holdings and City Developments both shed 1.67 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation lost 1.38 percent, SingTel fell 0.93 percent, Wilmar International added 0.61 percent, United Overseas Bank gave away 0.55 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was down 0.52 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is not encouraging as stocks opened in the red Friday and stayed that way throughout the day, although they did manage to climb off session lows.
The Dow fell 84.83 points or 0.34 percent to 25,090.48, the NASDAQ dipped 14.66 points or 0.19 percent to 7,746.38 and the S&P 500 eased 3.07 points or 0.10 percent at 2,779.42. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.3 percent, the S&P was nearly flat and the Dow slid 0.9 percent.
Renewed trade war concerns contributed to the weakness on Wall Street after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods that contain "industrially significant technologies."
Trump attributed the new tariffs to China's theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices. In response, China announced new tariffs on 545 products imported from U.S., including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products.
In economic news, the Federal Reserve reported an unexpected decrease in industrial production in May - which reflected a disruption in truck assemblies due to a major fire at a parts supplier.
Crude oil futures tumbled Friday, hitting fresh two-week lows amid expectations OPEC will ramp up demand. July WTI oil was down $1.83 or 2.7 percent to settle at $65.06/bbl. Prices were down 1 percent for the week.
Closer to home, Singapore will provide May numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In April, imports were worth 38.43 billion SGD and exports were at 44.50 SGD for a trade surplus of 6.07 billion SGD.
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