SINGAPORE shares started Thursday (Nov 3) in a slightly negative territory, following Wall Street’s losses a day earlier as the Fed delivered yet another round of interest rate hikes.

The Straits Times Index (STI) declined 0.7 per cent or 22.68 points to 3,118.45 as at 9.01 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 112 to 33 after 56.7 million securities worth S$67 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine : S51 0%, dropping 0.8 per cent, or S$0.001 to S$0.131 with 11 million shares changing hands as at 9 am.

Other heavily traded securities included Marco Polo Marine : 5LY 0%, which opened flat at S$0.038 with 4.5 million shares traded, as well as Golden Agri-Resources : E5H 0% (Gear) which gained 3.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.305 with 2.9 million shares traded.

Gear, whose business is in coal mining, announced late Tuesday night that it is looking to restructure or exit all or substantially all of its energy coal business. Its outstanding US$285 million 8.5 per cent senior secured notes due 2026 have been offered for exchange for new notes of the same value due 2027.

Index counter Singtel : Z74 0% fell 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.52 after 1.7 million of its shares changed hands.

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The trio of local banks fell in early morning trade. DBS : D05 0% was down 0.2 per cent or S$0.08 at S$34.66, OCBC : O39 0% declined 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$12.04 while UOB : U11 0% dipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 at S$28.03.

This comes after DBS on Thursday posted a 32 per cent improvement in its Q3 profit at S$2.24 billion, beating the S$1.87 billion consensus forecast in a Bloomberg survey of four analysts.

US stocks finished sharply lower on Wednesday after the Fed announced yet another round of interest rate hikes to tame the rising inflation, with more raises to come in future. Major US indices lost more than 1.5 per cent following a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell that observers characterised as more hawkish than expected.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.5 per cent to 3,759.69 as tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 3.4 per cent to 10,524.79, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6 per cent to 32,147.76.

European shares ended the day similarly bearish after as investors exercised some caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike decision later in the day.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index slipped 0.3 per cent to snap a three-day winning run that took it to near seven-week highs.

Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed on Thursday as it observes the Culture Day holiday in Japan.