Singapore Stock Market May Add To Its Winnings

The Singapore stock market has climbed higher in five straight sessions, surging almost 250 points or 9.4 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 2,750-point plateau and it's looking at another green light for Monday's trade.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive following much better than expected U.S. employment data. The European and U.S. markets were sharply higher and the Asian bourses are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The STI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrials.

For the day, the index jumped 44.30 points or 1.64 percent to finish at 2,751.50 after trading between 2,702.60 and 2,755.80. Volume was 1.49 billion shares worth 1.66 billion Singapore dollars. There were 347 gainers and 140 decliners.

Among the actives, City Developments surged4.20 percent, while Comfort DelGro soared 3.18 percent, SATS spiked 2.92 percent, Thai Beverage accelerated 2.84 percent, Mapletree Logistics jumped 2.58 percent, Ascendas REIT climbed 2.53 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding gathered 1.98 percent, SingTel perked 1.94 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust advanced 1.92 percent, United Overseas Bank added 1.71 percent, CapitaLand Commercial Trust gained 1.68 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation rose 1.51 percent, CapitaLand Mall Trust increased 1.44 percent, DBS Group collected 1.32 percent, Genting Singapore rallied 1.22 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering added 1.15 percent, Singapore Airlines lost 1.14 percent, CapitaLand gained 0.96 percent, Singapore Press Holdings fell 0.73 percent, Wilmar International dipped 0.49 percent, Keppel Corp rose 0.48 percent and SembCorp Industries was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as stocks opened sharply higher on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow surged 829.16 points or 3.15 percent to 27,110.98, while the NASDAQ soared 198.27 points or 2.06 percent to 9,814.08 and the S&P 500 spiked 81.58 points or 2.62 percent to 3,193.93. For the week, the Dow jumped 6.8 percent, the NASDAQ gained 3.4 percent and the S&P was up 4.9 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came as the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report seemed to prove traders were right to be optimistic about a quick economic recovery following a record spike in employment.

However, the Labor Department also revealed the unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher if not for the misclassification of persons absent from work due to coronavirus-related business closures.

Crude oil prices moved sharply higher on Friday amid optimism about increased energy demand and extended production cuts. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $2.14 or 5.7 percent at $39.55 a barrel.