Singapore shares fall at open after mixed close on Wall Street; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Tuesday following a mixed close on Wall Street and other international markets.

Singapore's Straits Times Index headed down 0.7 per cent or 22.02 points to 3,080.09 as at 9.03am.

Losers and gainers were evenly matched at 63 to 60, after 130.1 million securities worth S$73.1 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was S51 , which was down 1.1 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 8.9 cents, with 20 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included 579, which was flat at 3.5 Singapore cents with 6.6 million shares traded, as well as G13 , which slipped 0.6 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 78 cents, with four million shares traded.

Banking stocks declined in early morning trade. D05was down 0.8 per cent or S$0.24 to S$30.16, U11 lost 0.7 per cent or S$0.18 to S$25.64, while O39 dropped 0.9 per cent or S$0.10 to S$11.54.

Other active index counters included Z74, which was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.34, as well as the S68 , which tumbled 1.6 per cent or S$0.16 to S$9.93.

In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended at records for the second day straight on Monday amid investor optimism that the US economy would continue recovering from the pandemic.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished 0.4 per cent higher at 4,528.79, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.9 per cent to close at 15,265.89. However, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 per cent to end at 35,399.84.

The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 ended largely unchanged at 472.68 points, on slow trade activity as it was a British holiday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.7 per cent to 27,603.92 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.6 per cent to 1,938.18.