Daily Markets Briefing: STI up 0.27%

But don't expect a boost today.

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended 8.21 points or 0.27% higher to 3096.69 on Thursday, taking the year-to-date performance to +7.42%.

The top active stocks today were DBS, which gained 1.70%, Singtel, which gained 0.25%, OCBC Bank, which closed unchanged, CapitaLand, which declined 1.15% and Noble which closed unchanged.

OCBC said this came as U.S. stock indexes snapped a multi-session streak of simultaneous records Thursday, weighed down by a decline in energy stocks, with the Dow industrials the only index to gain another record high at the close.

Meanwhile, six out of eleven S&P 500 industries ended higher. The leaders were Utilities (0.95%) and Telecommunication Services (0.46%). The laggards were Energy (-1.37%) and Consumer Discretionary (-0.44%).

"The mixed showing on Wall Street overnight is unlikely to provide much direction to the local bourse today," OCBC noted.

Here's more from OCBC:

The STI looks poised to test the 3100 immediate resistance today. Failure which could see the STI sliding back towards 3070.

As before, we keep the next resistance at 3165 and next support at 3040.

Overall volume rose 2.2% with 3.3b units traded, and total value dropped 7.2% to S$1.3b, while average value/unit fell 9.0% to S$0.40.