Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.48%

The local sentiment could be cautious today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 15.82 points or 0.48% lower to 3255.29 on Friday, taking the year-to-date performance to +13.00%.

According to the SGX Market Summary, the top active stocks were Singtel, which closed unchanged, Wilmar Intl, which gained 9.62%, Noble Group, which declined 24.00%, DBS, which declined 1.19% and OCBC Bank, with a 0.10% fall.

This came as both the DJIA and S&P 500 Index on Friday snapped a three-week streak of gains, while the Nasdaq ended the fourth week in a row higher, a report from OCBC Investment Research noted.

It added, "With quarterly results concluding, attention may turn towards the uncertain political environment in the U.S."

Meanwhile, nine out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended lower, with Industrials (-0.65%) and Financials (-0.45%) leading the declines while Utilities (0.51%) and Information Technology (0.32%) led the gains. For the week, the index was up 0.35%.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

The mixed performance on Wall Street last Friday could cause local sentiment to be fairly cautious today.

With the breaking of the key 3260 resistance yesterday, we peg the new hurdle at 3300, ahead of 3365.

On the downside, we peg the immediate support at 3250, followed by the next support level at 3200.

Overall volume jumped 2.6% with 2.2b units traded, while total value dipped 22.5% to S$1.4b, and average value/unit dropped 26.4% to S$0.64.

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