Singapore stocks dip at Tuesday's open; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks fell slightly in early trade on Tuesday, dragged by a dip on Wall Street as fresh data pointed to slowing manufacturing industry growth due to ongoing supply shortages and bottlenecks.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 0.3 per cent or 10.18 points to 3,151.04 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 80 to 68 after 65.3 million securities worth S$98.4 million changed hands.

SPH T39 was among the most actively traded securities on Tuesday morning, with 10.7 million shares changing hands as at 9.03am. The counter gained 3.2 per cent or S$0.06 to S$1.94.

This comes after Keppel Corp on Monday launched a S$2.2 billion bid to privatise Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) ex-media.

Keppel Reit K71U was also among the top movers on Tuesday morning, falling 4.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$1.15 with 3.3 million units traded as at 9.03am.

Shares of Keppel Corp BN4 were up 0.6 per cent or S$0.03 to S$5.52 as at 9.03am, while units of SPH Reit SK6U were down 3.3 per cent or three Singapore cents to 88.5 cents as at 9.04am.

The trio of local banks were also trading lower on Tuesday morning. DBS D05 was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.19 to S$30.17, UOB U11 fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.19 to S$25.94, while OCBC O39 slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$12.26 as at 9.03am

In the US, Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Monday after global growth worries eroded gains made earlier in the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.3 per cent at 34,838.16, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 4,387.16, while the Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 14,681.07.

European stocks ended at a new peak on Monday, boosted by increased dealmaking activity and a batch of strong financial sector earnings.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6 per cent to end at a record closing high of 464.45 points.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened lower on Tuesday after Wall Street mostly fell on the latest disappointing manufacturing sector data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dipped 0.7 per cent, or 195.98 points, to 27,585.04, while the broader Topic index dropped 0.6 per cent, or 11.89 points, to 1,928.16.