The Singapore stock market on Wednesday wrote a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 90 points or 2.8 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,440-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key U.S. unemployment data on Friday. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

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

For the day, the index slumped 38.96 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 3,441.38 after trading between 3,412.47 and 3,442.27.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust plummeted 3.29 percent, while City Developments skidded 1.33 percent, Comfort DelGro rallied 1.42 percent, DBS Group tumbled 1.74 percent, Genting Singapore slid 0.60 percent, Hongkong Land plunged 2.70 percent, Keppel DC REIT tanked 2.36 percent, Keppel Ltd retreated 1.61 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust lost 0.74 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust eased 0.41 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation surrendered 1.56 percent, SATS was down 0.55 percent, Seatrium Limited fell 0.64 percent, SembCorp Industries sank 0.81 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering slumped 1.34 percent, SingTel jumped 1.61 percent, Thai Beverage climbed 0.96 percent, Wilmar International dropped 0.96 percent, Yangzijiang Financial declined 1.43 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding shed 0.77 percent and Mapletree Logistics Trust, Emperador, CapitaLand Investment and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed on Wednesday, hugged the line for most of the day and finished mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 40,974.97, while the NASDAQ lost 52.00 points or 0.30 percent to close at 17,084.30 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,520.07.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street reflected uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the substantial volatility seen over the past couple months.

Stocks have shown a substantial rebound or late but are hampered by lingering concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday amid rising concerns about the outlook for demand following reports that OPEC is planning to restore 180,000 barrels per day of voluntary production cuts beginning next month. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.14 or 1.6 percent at 69.20 a barrel, a nine-month low.

Closer to home, Singapore will release July numbers for retail sales later today; in June, sales were down 3.7 percent on month and 0.6 percent on year. – RTT News