Singapore shares open lower on Tuesday following US tech selloff; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened 0.4 per cent lower on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index down 13.85 points to 3,484.44 as at 9.02am as stocks in Asia fell, building on losses on Wall Street after a selloff in technology shares dented trader sentiment on Monday.

On the Singapore Exchange, about 45 million shares worth S$54 million in total changed hands as losers outnumbered gainers 103 to 27.

The most actively traded stock was Golden Agri-Resources, which traded at S$0.350 with seven million shares changing hands.

Other actives included Noble Group and YZJ Shipbuilding.

Active index stocks included DBS, down S$0.16 or 0.6 per cent at S$27.91; and Singtel shares trading up S$0.02 or 0.6 per cent at S$3.46.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 335.6 points, or 1.35 per cent, to close at 24,610.91, the S&P 500 lost 39.09 points, or 1.42 per cent, to 2,712.92 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 137.74 points, or 1.84 per cent, to 7,344.24.

In regional markets, Japan's Topix index fell 0.8 per cent and the Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 1.1 per cent as at 9.12am in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.5 per cent and South Korea's Kospi index fell 0.4 per cent.