The Singapore stock market bounced higher again on Friday, one day after halting the three-day winning streak in which it had improved more than 60 points or 1.9 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,240-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to slightly higher, with support from oil stocks capped by weakness from tech shares. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.
For the day, the index spiked 49.87 points or 1.56 percent to finish at 3,240.58 after trading between 3,210.75 and 3,246.13. Volume was 1.81 billion shares worth 1.54 billion Singapore dollars. There were 340 gainers and 170 decliners.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT added 0.74 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust perked 0.45 percent, CapitaLand Investment accelerated 2.62 percent, City Developments strengthened 2.25 percent, Comfort DelGro rose 0.68 percent, DBS Group collected 1.00 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 2.60 percent, Hongkong Land jumped 2.34 percent, Keppel Corp increased 0.89 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust was up 0.41 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gathered 1.03 percent, SATS soared 3.40 percent, SembCorp Industries improved 1.41 percent, Singapore Exchange climbed 2.07 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering advanced 2.00 percent, Thai Beverage gained 0.71 percent, United Overseas Bank spiked 3.19 percent, Wilmar International surged 4.13 percent, Yangzijiang Financial skyrocketed 8.97 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust, SingTel and Frasers Logistics were unchanged.
Wall Street offers little guidance as the major averages opened higher on Friday, quickly plummeted into the red before rallying to finish mixed and little changed.
The Dow added 8.77 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 31,261.90, while the NASDAQ fell 33.88 points or 0.30 percent to close at 11,354.62 and the S&P 500 rose 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 3,901.36.
For the week, the NASDAQ dove 3.8 percent, the S&P sank 3 percent and the Dow lost 2.9 percent.
The extended volatility on Wall Street came as traders continued to debate when the markets will reach a bottom following recent weakness.
The S&P 500 was down more than 20 percent from January's record closing high, which is seen as signaling a bear market.
Crude oil futures settled higher on Friday, lifted by the proposed ban on Russian oil by the EU and the relaxation of Covid lockdowns in China. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July added $0.39 or 0.4 percent at $110.28 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will see April data for consumer prices later today; in March, overall inflation was up 1.2 percent on month and 5.4 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 2.9 percent.