Singapore stocks fall at Friday's open; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (Feb 18) morning after US stocks dropped overnight with growing worries over Russia and Ukraine tensions.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 0.2 per cent or 8.29 points to 3,433.28 as at 9.03 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 82 to 53 after 69.1 million securities worth S$77.6 million changed hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume at Friday's open was Catalist-listed medtech company QT Vascular 5I0 . The counter traded up 25 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.005 with 12.1 million shares changing hands.

Mainboard-listed Genting Singapore G13 was also among the most heavily traded securities on Friday morning. Shares of the resort company rose 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.79.

Disa 532 and Thai Beverage Y92 were actively traded by volume as well. Both companies traded flat at S$0.005 and S$0.69 respectively.

The trio of local banks were mixed on Friday morning.

UOB shares U11 dropped 0.2 per cent or S$0.06 to S$32.80 and OCBC O39 fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.07 to S$13.34. On the other hand, DBS D05 grew 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 to trade at S$36.60 as at 9.03 am.

Over on Wall Street, US stocks slid on Thursday as investors' concerns grow over geopolitical tensions between Washington and Russia over Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 622.24 points or 1.8 per cent to 34,312.03, the S&P 500 lost 94.75 points or 2.1 per cent to 4,380.26 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 407.38 points or 2.9 per cent to 13,716.72.

Meanwhile, European shares fell on Thursday over Russian-Ukraine tensions as well. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.7 per cent with banking and energy shares leading declines.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened lower on Friday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.2 per cent or 324.64 points to 26,908.23, while the broader Topix index lost 1 per cent or 19.50 points to 1,911.74.