Singapore shares open slightly lower amid global retreat; STI down 0.04%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Wednesday (Jul 27) following overnight losses on Wall Street and Europe.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index slipped 0.04 per cent or 1.39 points to 3,190.73 as at 9.02 am. Losers outpaced gainers 47 to 43, after 32 million securities worth S$27.9 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters was HPH Trust , which fell 2.1 per cent or US$0.005 to US$0.235, with 2 million units changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Genting Singapore , which was flat at S$0.81 with 1.7 million shares traded, and Sembcorp Marine , which held steady at S$0.106 with 1.6 million shares traded.

Banking stocks were mostly down during early morning trade. DBS lost 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 to S$31.31, OCBC declined 0.4 per cent or S$0.04 to S$11.56, while UOB was flat at S$27.74.

Other active index counters included Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust , which dropped 1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.91, and Mapletree Logistics Trust , which was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.75.

In the US, stocks slipped on Tuesday as investors took cues from Walmart trimming its profit forecasts, which helped drag down Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.7 per cent lower at 31,761.54. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.2 per cent to 3,921.05 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.9 per cent to 11,562.57.

European shares also fell on Tuesday, with German and Italian stocks leading declines after European Union countries approved a weakened emergency plan to curb their gas demand. Retail stocks, meanwhile, tumbled after Walmart’s profit warning. On the day, the Stoxx 600 was flat.

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Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.4 per cent to 27,534.78 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 0.3 per cent to 1,937.19.