THERE were no surprises as the local stock market kicked off the week on a weak note, with the Straits Times Index on Monday dropping 12.94 points to 3,404.57 in response to Wall Street's Friday plunge.
Turnover was about average by recent standards at 1.2 billion units worth S$1.2 billion. Excluding warrants, there were 144 rises against 287 falls.
The session opened with the STI falling about 30 points in early trading, erasing all of its Friday bounce. Thereafter the pressure eased and a bout of short-covering ensued that cut the loss to as little as 10 points, before a weak opening for Europe brought on renewed selling. However, the index managed to reduce its loss in the final seconds, prompting speculation that Wall Street just might stabilised on Monday.
Blue chips which contributed the most to the index's fall were Singtel and CapitaLand, whilst Noble Group's S$0.055 slide to S$1 also weighed on the index. Penny stocks in play included KLW, Unifiber, Advance SCT and Xpress.
Crude-oil futures kicked off a new weak of trading on a slightly downbeat note on Monday, on the heels of losses last week due to a stronger dollar and rising U.S. oil supplies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April CLJ5, -0.02% traded flat at $49.61 a barrel in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude for April delivery LCOJ5, -0.50% on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.25 to $59.48 a barrel.
INTERNATIONAL COMMODITY NEWS :
COMEX Gold futures slipped under $1200 per ounce amid massive strength in US dollar. The metal dropped after hitting its two week highs above $1220 per ounce as the dollar hit near 12 year high of 1.1000 against the Euro. Gold corrected after Federal Reserve ChairJanet Yellen said that the central bank could raise interest rates before inflation pick sup as long as it foresees price increases accelerating and the job market continues to advance. However, MCX Gold edged up after India’s Union Budget 2015-16 announced some-key measures to monetize domestic gold holdings. This boosted sentiments in world markets too before the awesome rally in US dollar pulled brakes on the yellow metal. Gold had dropped to a six week low of $1190 per ounce in the last week of February before recovering. MCX Gold futures edged up above Rs 26700 per 10 grams mark after the budget but pared back soon amid losses in global prices.
TRADING STRATEGY :
BUY GOLD ABOVE 1172 TARGET 1177 1183 SL 1166
SELL GOLD BELOW 1160 TARGET 1155 1149 SL 1166
