Daily Markets Briefing: STI down 0.35%

Weakness in Wall Street could keep local bourse drifting sideways.

The STI ended 9.98 points or 0.35% lower to 2875.24 last Friday, taking the year-to-date performance to -0.26%.

According to OCBC, this came after US stocks also came in lower, as September jobs report were below expectations.

"The market’s weekly decline was also the first retreat after three straight weekly gains," OCBC said.

Of the 11 S&P 500 industries, nine ended lower, with Materials (-1.81%) leading the declines while Health Care (+0.09%) led the gains.

The brokerage firm said this weakness could keep overall sentiment fairly cautious and the local bourse drifting sideways.

Here's more from OCBC:

Nov WTI Crude lost 63 cents, or 1.25%, to close at US$49.81/barrel while Dec Brent was down 58 cents, or 1.10%, to end at US$51.93/barrel. WTI and Brent added 3.25% and 3.47% respectively for the week.

Gold for Dec delivery was down US$1.10, or 0.09%, to close at US$1251.90/ounce while Dec Silver added 3.5 cents, or 0.20%, to settle at US$17.38/ounce. For the week, Gold and Silver declined 4.95% and 9.55% each.

Overall volume dropped 14.2% with 2.0b units traded, and the total value dropped 16.1% to S$0.8b; while average value/unit was down 4% to S$0.43.