Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.44%

Expect some losses today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 13.71 points or 0.44% higher to 3136.48, taking the year-to-date performance to +8.88%.

The top active stocks today were DBS, which gained 1.12%, Singtel, which declined 0.76%, CapitaLand, which gained 1.39%, OCBC Bank, which declined 0.21% and UOB, with a 0.05% fall.

This came as the Dow shed more than 100 points Thursday to finish barely above 21,000 as weak financial shares dragged on the market while Wall Street focused on social app Snap Inc., which soared on its trading debut, OCBC Investment Research said.

Meanwhile, nine out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Financials (-1.47%) and Materials (-1.05%) leading the declines while Utilities (0.74%) and Telecommunication Services (0.06%) led the gains.

"The weakness on Wall Street overnight could weigh on local sentiment today," OCBC said.

Here's more from OCBC:

With the taking out of the 3125 key hurdle yesterday, we peg the immediate resistance at 3165, ahead of 3180 for now.

On the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3100, ahead of 3060.

Overall volume climbed 23.4% with 2.8b units traded, and total value rose 24.0% to S$1.7b, while average value/unit gained 0.5% to S$0.62.

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