FX.co ★ More Pain Predicted For Singapore Stock Market

Singapore's stock market has experienced consecutive lows, with a decline of more than 20 points or 0.6 percent. Currently, the Straits Times Index (STI) stands slightly below the 3,200-point mark, with an anticipated further decrease.

Internationally, the forecast for Asian markets indicates a weakness, however some losses expected from the tech sector may be offset by strength in oil companies. A mixed performance has been observed in the European markets while U.S. markets experienced a downgrade.

On Monday, the STI ended moderately lower due to financial shares, property stocks, and industrial issues' losses. The index fell down 19.87 points or 0.62 percent to end at the daily low of 3,198.10 after reaching a maximum of 3,221.29 during the day. Major players such as CapitaLand Investment and City Developments experienced significant losses, while Comfort DelGro and Emperador saw slight increase in their stocks.

U.S. Wall Street reflected a weak performance with the Dow dropping 0.41 percent or 162.26 points and NASDAQ sinking 0.27 percent or 44.35 points. Some of this was due to a falling stock of major technology corporations such as Intel (INTC), down by 4.7 percent after reports of China phasing out Intel and Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) microprocessors from government PCs and servers.

Moreover, selling pressure remained somewhat low as traders seemingly resisted making significant moves before the release of some crucial economic data, including important inflation numbers on Friday.

Additionally, oil prices saw an increase due to supply disruption concerns as Ukraine's attack on Russian refineries continued. A weak dollar, coupled with expected central bank interest rate cuts, also led to a rise in oil prices. As a result, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.32 or 1.64 percent at $81.95 a barrel.

Lastly, Singapore is set to release data for industrial production for the month of February. The forecasts indicate an increase of 4.5 percent monthly and 0.2 percent annually, following a 5.7 percent monthly and 1.1 percent yearly rise in January.