Singapore shares fall at Thursday's open; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Thursday amid weaker openings among index counters. Singapore's Straits Times Index headed down 0.3 per cent or 8.32 points to 2,601.85 as at 9.05am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 63 to 43, after 108.9 million securities worth S$52.5 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was BlackGold Natural Resources, which rose 66.7 per cent, or 0.8 Singapore cent to two cents with 48.7 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Medtecs International which rose 6.1 per cent or 2.5 Singapore cents to 43.5 cents with 7.9 million shares traded, as well as Thai Beverage Public Company, which held steady at 67.5 Singapore cents with 7.3 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.3 per cent or S$0.06 at S$21.11, UOB was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.12 to S$20.33, while OCBC rose 1 per cent, or S$0.09 to S$9.01.

Other active index counters included Singtel which fell 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.45 on a cum-dividend basis and the Singapore Exchange, which declined 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$8.17.

In the US, the Nasdaq surged to a fresh record close on Wednesday, while the Dow retreated as the US battles a resurgent coronavirus crisis. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index ended 1 per cent higher at 10,154.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3 per cent to 25,734.97, while the S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent to 3,115.86.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher. The Nikkei 225 index was up 0.4 per cent to 22,217.03 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.5 per cent to 1,545.91.