The Singapore stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, sinking more than 40 points or 1.2 percent in that span. The Straits Times Index now rests just beneath the 3,450-point plateau and it may take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The STI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index lost 23.60 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 3,447.56 after trading between 3,437.85 and 3,457.31.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust tumbled 1.44 percent, while CapitaLand Investment and Mapletree Logistics Trust both lost 0.73 percent, City Developments slumped 1.28 percent, DBS Group slid 0.57 percent, Emperador climbed 1.19 percent, Genting Singapore skidded 1.16 percent, Hongkong Land tanked 1.46 percent, Keppel Ltd stumbled 1.20 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust plunged 1.50 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust dipped 0.43 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 0.99 percent, SATS fell 0.61 percent, Seatrium Limited retreated 1.35 percent, SembCorp Industries dropped 1.06 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering advanced 0.91 percent, SingTel declined 1.31 percent, Thai Beverage rallied 1.00 percent, Wilmar International shed 0.96 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plummeted 1.70 percent and Comfort DelGro, Keppel DC REIT, Yangzijiang Financial and Frasers Centrepoint Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened mixed but quickly turned lower and spent the rest of the day solidly in the red.

The Dow tumbled 377.49 points or 0.93 percent to finish at 40,287.53, while the NASDAQ sank 144.28 points or 0.81 percent to end at 17,726.94 and the S&P 500 lost 39.59 points or 0.71 percent to close at 5,505.00.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 3.7 percent and the S&P 500 tumbled 2.0 percent, but the Dow rose 0.7 percent.

With concerns about the outlook for tech stocks recently weighing on Wall Street, negative sentiment may have been generated by a major IT outage.

The operations of major banks, media outlets, hospitals and airlines worldwide were affected due to the widespread outage, which was purportedly caused by an update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD).

New hopes for Gaza ceasefire, while a firm dollar also weighed on oil prices. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for August sank $2.69 or 3.25 percent at $80.13 a barrel, the lowest settlement since June 17. – RTT News