Singapore stocks: STI resumes Friday afternoon at 3,108.95, down 0.6% on day

INVESTORS continued to stay on the sidelines following a lacklustre session on Wall Street ahead of US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole. The local benchmark also underperformed regional peers with a number of counters going ex-dividend on Friday.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) was trading at 3,108.95, down 18.79 points or 0.6 per cent, as at 1.05pm.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, markets fared better with Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia higher. Like the local market, South Korea was lower.

Shortly after the afternoon session commenced, volume on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 547.40 million securities traded and a total turnover of S$410.63 million. Both are on track to miss their respective seven-month daily averages.

Across the market, decliners beat advancers 177 to 110. The bluechip index had 28 of the 30 counters in trading in the red.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding shares continued to see active trading. They were down 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.5 per cent lower at 92.5 cents with 22.7 million shares changing hands, the most on the STI.

Following reaching a 52-week high on Thursday, Thai Beverage dipped 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.5 per cent to trade at 92.5 cents. The food and beverage player remains the STI's top performer in 2019.

The performance of the STI was weighed down by a numberof counters trading ex-dividend on Friday. Among them was property pick Hongkong Land, down 12 US cents or 2.1 per cent to US$5.58.

The local banks were also lower ahead of Mr Powell's speech. DBS Group Holdings shares were down S$0.19 or 0.8 per cent to S$24.40. Meanwhile, OCBC Bank eased four Singapore cents or 0.4 per cent to S$10.65 and United Overseas Bank traded at S$24.78, down four cents or 0.2 per cent.