Singapore shares open Thursday in the red; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE stocks fell into negative territory on Thursday (Jun 2) morning, following overnight losses on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.5 per cent or 15.27 points to 3,228.73 as at 9.02 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 81 to 33 after 65.8 million securities worth S$70.5 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) and Marco Polo Marine were the 2 most actively traded counters in the morning. Sembmarine shed S$0.002 or 1.7 per cent to S$0.115 after 17.4 million securities changed hands, while Marco Polo Marine saw some 7.3 million shares traded at the open but remained unchanged at S$0.03.

Shares of Yangzijiang Financial Holdings also saw brisk activity with 1.7 million securities moving in early trade. It rose S$0.01 or 2 per cent to S$0.51. Earlier this week, the Yangzijiang Shipbuilding spin-off announced that it was upping its dividend payout policy.

Index counter Singtel dipped S$0.02 or 0.8 per cent to S$2.58 at the open, with 1.5 million securities changing hands. This comes a day after the telco named Australia-listed real estate group Lendlease as its partner to jointly redevelop its Comcentre headquarters into an office redevelopment.

The trio of local banks were a sea of red in early trade. DBS and OCBC each lost S$0.12, or 0.4 per cent and 1 per cent, to S$31.09 and S$11.79, respectively. UOB slid S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent to trade at S$29.02.

In the US, stocks slid for a second straight session on Wednesday following a choppy session as inflation worries continued to weigh on sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5 per cent at 32,813.23. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent to 4,101.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.7 per cent to 11,994.46.

European shares ended Wednesday lower as weak German retail sales and slowing factory activity in the euro zone fanned worries about economic growth amid record high inflation.

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Local shares end Wednesday in the black, STI up 0.4%

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended 1 per cent lower at 438.72, after gaining as much as 0.4 per cent earlier in the day.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened Thursday lower to mirror declines on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.5 per cent, or 140.57 points, to 27,317.32, while the broader Topix index dropped 0.8 per cent, or 15.62 points, to 1,923.02.