Singapore stocks open flat on Wednesday; STI down 0.02%

SINGAPORE stocks fell marginally in early trade on Wednesday morning, following Wall Street's mixed close. This comes after the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it was keeping its monetary policy unchanged and raising headline inflation forecast to 0.5-1.5 per cent on Wednesday.

This also follows promising economic data in Q1, with Singapore registering GDP growth of 0.2 per cent year on year in Q1, according to MTI's advance estimates.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dipped marginally by 0.02 per cent or 0.67 point to 3,187.23 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 75 to 51 after 51.8 million securities worth S$38.6 million changed hands.

CWX Global shares were the most actively traded securities on Wednesday morning, with 7.7 million shares changing hands as at 9.01am. The counter rose 25 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 0.5 cent.

mm2 Asia also saw brisk trading with 6.4 million shares changing hands. Its shares fell 4.9 per cent or 0.3 cent to 5.8 cents.

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The trio of local banks were also mixed in early trade. DBS was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.11 to S$28.73, UOB gained 0.04 per cent or S$0.01 to S$26.05, while OCBC slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$11.81 as at 9.07am.

In the US, stocks finished mostly higher. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 4,141.59, topping its record from last week, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.1 per cent to close at 13,996.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2 per cent to end at 33,677.27.

European shares hovered just below all-time highs on Tuesday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 closing up 0.1 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.2 per cent or 62.85 points at 29,688.76, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.4 per cent or 8.05 points to 1,950.50.