The winning streak has stretched to three sessions now for the Singapore stock market, which has advanced almost 65 points or 2 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index closed just below the 3,280-point plateau, and now the market may see additional support on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets remains cautiously optimistic as monetary policy is expected to remain accommodative around the world for the near term. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The STI finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the industrial stocks, financial shares, plantations and properties.
For the day, the index spiked 35.88 points or 1.11 percent to finish at 3,279.53 after trading between 3,258.14 and 3,286.68. Volume was 1.31 billion shares worth 1.23 billion Singapore dollars.
Among the actives, Keppel Corp jumped 1.90 percent, while City Developments spiked 2.13 percent, CapitaLand advanced 2.92 percent, DBS Group climbed 2.05 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 1.28 percent, Golden Agri-Resources tumbled 1.14 percent, Wilmar International added 1.28 percent, SembCorp surged 3.10 percent and SingTel fell 1.29 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is mildly positive as stocks saw further upside on Friday after moving sharply in the two previous sessions. With the gains, the major averages further offset the sell-off that was seen earlier this month.
The Dow edged up 26.65 points or 0.2 percent to 17,804.80, while the NASDAQ rose 16.98 points or 0.4 percent to 4,765.38 and the S&P 500 climbed 9.42 points or 0.5 percent to 2,070.65. For the week, the Dow surged 3 percent, while the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 jumped by 2.4 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.
The strength continued to reflect a positive reaction to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement on Wednesday.
Traders have focused on the Fed's pledge to remain "patient" as well as Fed Chair Janet Yellen's comments indicating that the central bank is unlikely to start the process of normalizing policy for at least the next couple of meetings.
Optimism about the impact of easy monetary policy from other central banks around the world also generated some buying interest.
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