Singapore shares fall at open tracking Wall Street retreat; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Wednesday (Apr 6), extending overnight losses on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.3 per cent or 8.72 points to 3,436.29 as at 9.03 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 101 to 49, or about 2 securities down for every 1 up, after 55 million securities worth S$82.3 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Jiutian Chemical C8R , which advanced 1.1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.092, with 5.4 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine S51, which gained 1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.101, with 2.8 million shares traded and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding BS6 , which was flat at S$1.58 with 2.8 million shares traded.

Singtel Z74 was among the most active index counters of the morning as 1.8 million of its shares changed hands in early trade. The telco's share price remained flat at S$2.66.

The trio of local banks slid in early morning trade. DBS D05 was down 0.3 per cent or S$0.11 to S$35.80, UOB U11 lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.15 to reach S$31.82, while OCBC O39 declined 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$12.36.

In the US, stocks retreated on Tuesday, dragged by weakness in tech and other growth stocks. This came after comments from Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard spooked investors about potential aggressive actions by the central bank to control inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8 per cent to 34,641.18, the S&P 500 dropped 1.3 per cent to 4,525.12 and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2.3 per cent to 14,204.17.

European shares edged higher on Tuesday as investors awaited a batch of fresh sanctions on Moscow. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index gained 0.2 per cent, while France's benchmark CAC 40 index lost 1.3 per cent to clock its worst day in nearly a month.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.9 per cent at 27,526.51 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.8 per cent to 1,933.82.