The Singapore stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, stumbling almost 150 points or 4.8 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,115-point plateau although it's expected to find traction on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat following news of bond market intervention from the Bank of England. The European and U.S. markets were up and the oversold Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The STI finished sharply lower on Wednesday with damage across the board, especially among the financials, properties and industrials.
For the day, the index stumbled 49.19 points or 1.55 percent to finish at 3,116.31 after trading between 3,112.91 and 3,160.75. Volume was 1.63 billion shares worth 1.75 billion Singapore dollars. There were 430 decliners and 171 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT shed 1.85 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust surrendered 3.06 percent, CapitaLand Investment plummeted 3.98 percent, City Developments stumbled 2.55 percent, Comfort DelGro slumped 2.21 percent, DBS Group slipped 1.39 percent, Emperador advanced 1.01 percent, Genting Singapore dropped 1.90 percent, Hongkong Land tumbled 3.42 percent, Keppel Corp declined 3.01 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust retreated 2.84 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust weakened 2.05 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust sank 1.89 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation dipped 1.35 percent, SembCorp Industries lost 1.62 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering skidded 1.94 percent, SingTel eased 0.38 percent, Thai Beverage slid 0.80 percent, United Overseas Bank fell 1.54 percent, Wilmar International was down 0.77 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plunged 3.90 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding tanked 3.70 percent and SATS was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday but accelerated shortly thereafter to finish solidly in the green.
The Dow surged 548.75 points or 1.88 percent to finish at 29,683.74, while the NASDAQ soared 222.13 points or 2.05 percent to end at 11,051.64 and the S&P 500 jumped 71.75 points or 1.97 percent to close at 3,719.04.
The rally on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to the Bank of England's plans to begin temporarily purchasing long-dated U.K. government bonds to address dysfunction in the gilt market. In addition, the BoE postponed the selling of bonds held under the quantitative easing program to October 31.
Long-term U.K. bond yields have pulled back following the news, while U.S. treasury yields also moved sharply lower after surging in recent sessions. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note showed a steep drop after briefly topping 4.0 percent for the first time in over 12 years.
Stocks also benefited from a significant pullback by the U.S. dollar, with the U.S. dollar index tumbling by 1.2 percent. The greenback had recently reached new 20-year highs.
Crude oil prices rose sharply Wednesday after data showed a dip in U.S. crude inventories last week, and the dollar's sharp drop also contributed to the jump in oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended higher by $3.65 or 4.7 percent at $82.15 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will release August figures for import, export and producer prices later today. In July, import prices were up 14.7 percent on year, while export prices jumped 19.4 percent and producer prices rose 19.0 percent.
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