Singapore, Asia markets mostly down at midday after Wall Street rout; YZJ Shipbuilding sinks 5.6%
Shipbuilder’s shares likely affected by a drop in Maersk earnings, potential layoffs
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[SINGAPORE] Asian markets took a beating at their open on Friday (Feb 6), after a new round of heavy selling hit US tech stocks and crypto.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the worst hit on the Singapore Exchange as at 9.30 am, with a 5.3 per cent drop erasing more than S$700 million in its market capitalisation. Its shares fell further by the midday trading break to be 5.6 per cent down.
The shipbuilder was likely affected by a drop in Maersk earnings and plans for the Danish shipping company to cut 1,000 jobs. Shares of Maersk in Copenhagen fell 3.7 per cent by close on Thursday.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 0.7 per cent in the first 30 minutes of trading and was still down that amount by midday, with most counters opening in the red.
As at the midday trading break, shares of DBS were down about 0.7 per cent, OCBC dropped 0.9 per cent and Singtel declined 0.8 per cent, with the telco’s shares having retreated as much as 2 per cent earlier.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 2 per cent immediately upon market open, but pared some losses to be 1.1 per cent down at midday. Meanwhile, Shanghai’s CSI 300 opened 1 per cent lower, but was less than 0.1 per cent down as at 11.30 am in China.
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South Korea’s Kospi was down 3.9 per cent at 10.30 am local time. It later pared some losses to be 1.6 per cent down as at 1 pm. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix were down 0.8 and 0.1 per cent at 10.30 am, respectively, but reversed momentum to rise 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent as at 1 pm local time.
Kuala Lumpur’s KLCI was 0.1 per cent down as at midday in Malaysia.
This followed the tech-heavy S&P 500 in the US falling 1.2 per cent, and the similarly tech-focused Nasdaq 100 seeing its worst three-day drop since April.
Bitcoin, the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency, tumbled to around US$63,000 in a sell-off that has seen its value drop about 50 per cent in just three months.
The precious metal silver slumped about 20 per cent overnight, but climbed about 3 per cent as at 12 pm in Singapore. Gold was up 1 per cent as at that time.
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