Technically, STI long-term appears to be turn up and short-term wise, it is bias towards the upside. Stochastic indicator looks to be moving up after staying above the 20% mark for whole of last week. RSI remained flattish around the 50% level indicating strength in holding up the index. DI pair still negtaive spaced but DI- appears to be cutting down. With ADX signal flattish below the 20 level, any downside is limited and indicating STI might be doing range bound in the coming week. Immediate support is at 1,680 and resistance 1,730.
For the coming week, STI should be still focus on corporate earnings as another round of heavy weights are reporting the coming week with OCBC, ST Engg and Great Eastern. US Congress has made a compromises between the 2 differences of Obama's stimulus bill and President Obama suppose to sign the bill on 16th Feb and there is also talk of US Government coming to help the mortage loan default issue and all these could dictate the direction of STI also.
For short-term investors/traders, market has been in range bound mode for past 1 or 2 weeks and look to be in the same trend for the coming week also. Buying near support and selling at resistance level could be the best trading strategy for the moment.
For long term investors, with corporate earnings going on, it is good time to read through the balance sheets and hunt for the quality stocks and buy into it when price becomes at attractive value. Spreading out the purchase would be good as it could minimize the downside risk.
