Singapore shares open lower on Friday; STI down 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (Jun 10) morning, echoing a decline on Wall Street ahead of a key inflation report. 

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.6 per cent or 20.18 points to 3,189.44 as at 9.01 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 95 to 15 after 37.5 million securities worth S$46.6 million changed hands.

Yangzijiang Financial Holding was the top traded counter by volume, falling S$0.01 or 2 per cent to S$0.50 with some 4.7 million shares traded in the morning. 

Other heavily traded securities include MarcoPolo Marine which rose 3.1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.033 with 3.8 million shares traded, as well as Jiutian Chemical which dipped 0.9 per cent or S$0.001 to $0.107 with 2.5 million shares traded.

Among index counters, ComfortDelGro also saw brisk trading with 908,600 units changing hands at the open. It lost S$0.02, or 1.4 per cent, to trade at S$1.42.  

The trio of local banks were a sea of red in early trade. DBS was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.27 at S$30.09, UOB fell 0.6 per cent or S$0.17 to S$27.88, while OCBC shed 0.9 per cent or S$0.10 to reach S$11.66. 

In the US, stocks sank on Thursday, with the Dow shedding more than 600 points ahead of a key report on soaring consumer prices and after the European Central Bank (ECB) joined the Federal Reserve in the inflation battle.

The losses accelerated late in the session on a choppy day of trading, as all eyes are focused on the Labor Department’s consumer price index for May due out on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.9 per cent to finish the day at 32,272.79. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.4 per cent to 4,017.82, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 2.8 per cent to close at 11,754.23.

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European shares hit 2-week lows on Thursday after the ECB signalled a higher interest rate hike in September as it raised its inflation forecast and cut economic growth expectations for the year.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index, which recouped almost all its session losses after the central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, swiftly reversed course and tumbled 1.6 per cent to 434.38. 

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, tracking falls on Wall Street, with investors cautious ahead of key US inflation data due on Friday.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1 per cent, or 290.31 points, at 27,956.22 in early trade, while the broader Topix index also fell 1 per cent, or 19.82 points, to 1,949.23.