Singapore shares fall at Wednesday’s open; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Wednesday (Apr 27), tracking overnight losses on Wall Street amid ongoing concerns about sharp interest rates.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.3 per cent or 9.79 points to 3,312.26 as at 9.04 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 113 to 52, after 108.5 million securities worth S$116.8 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Dyna-Mac Holdings , which rose 5.7 per cent or S$0.007 to S$0.129 with 8.3 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Golden Agri-Resources, which rose 4.6 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.34 with 8.2 million shares traded, as well as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding which fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.89 with 5.9 million shares traded.

Banking stocks fell in early morning trade as at 9.04 am. DBS was trading down 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 at S$32.97, UOB was down 0.3 per cent or S$0.09 at S$30.58, while OCBC fell 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$11.89.

Other active index counters included CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust which slid 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.33 and Singapore Telecommunications which dropped 1.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.74.  

In the US, Wall Street stocks sank into the red as ongoing investor fears over sharp interest rate increases drove all 3 major indices to big losses by the end of trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.4 per cent to finish at 33,240.18. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.8 per cent to 4,175.20, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sunk 4 per cent to close at 12,490.74.

Meanwhile, European shares extended losses for a third session on Tuesday, giving up earlier gains as technology stocks followed US peers into the red. The pan-Europe Stoxx 600 index closed lower, with technology stocks down 2.3 per cent at 6-week lows and banks dropping 2.3 per cent.

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Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo’s stocks also opened lower on Wednesday as fears grew over the impact of China’s Covid-19 outbreak on the global economy. The Nikkei 225 index was down 1.53 per cent, or 408.94 points, at 26,291.17 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 1.35 per cent, or 25.39 points, at 1,853.12.