Singapore shares fall at Friday’s open; STI down 1.5%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (May 6) morning, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 1.5 per cent or 49.41 points to 3,294.16 as at 9.02 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 122 to 19, after 64.7 million securities worth S$66.3 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which stayed flat at S$0.096 with 19.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Golden Agri-Resources which also stayed flat at S$0.315 with 5.3 million shares traded, as well as Jiutian Chemical which fell 1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.096 with 3.2 million shares traded.

Banking stocks fell in early morning trade as at 9.02 am. DBS was trading down 1.6 per cent or S$0.54 at S$33.06, UOB was down 1.6 per cent or S$0.47 at S$29.43, while OCBC fell 3.5 per cent or S$0.43 to S$11.92.

Other active index counters included CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust which slid 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.29 and Singapore Telecommunications which dropped 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.73.

In the US, Wall Street stocks suffered bruising losses on Thursday in a broad-based sell-off prompted by unease over shifting monetary policy and rising economic risks from inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points, or 3.1 per cent, to 32,997.97. The broad-based S&P 500 slid 3.6 per cent to 4,146.87, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 5 per cent to 12,317.69.

Meanwhile, European stocks fell for the second straight session on Thursday, with most major sectors handing back earlier gains made after less hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve.

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The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.7 per cent lower, led by the travel and leisure, banking and insurance sectors.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s key Nikkei index opened lower on Friday after US stocks plunged on renewed anxiety over rising interest rates.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.13 per cent or 34.24 points to 26,784.29 at the open, while the broader Topix index added 0.21 per cent or 4.05 points to 1,902.40.