Singapore stocks fall at Monday's open; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Monday (Apr 11) after Wall Street indices ended mixed on Friday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.5 per cent or 16.69 points to 3,366.59 as at 9.01 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 58 to 52 after 28.6 million securities worth S$39.7 million changed hands.

Golden Energy was the most actively traded counter in terms of volume on Monday morning, with 5 million shares changing hands as at 9.01 am. The counter rose 3.3 per cent or S$0.02 to S$0.635.

Sembcorp Marine was one of the top 5 actively traded counters in terms of volume. Its share price was up 1 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.105.

Index counter Genting Singapore was also actively traded in terms of volume, losing 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.805.

The trio of local banks were all in the red at the open, with DBS dropping 1.4 per cent or S$0.49 to S$33.88. UOB lost 0.6 per cent or S$0.18 to S$31.40, while OCBC fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$12.14.

Wall Street shares ended after choppy trade on Friday as beaten-down bank shares gained and investors grappled with how best to deal with an economy that could skid as the Federal Reserve moves to aggressively tackle inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.55 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 34,721.12, the S&P 500 lost 11.93 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 4,488.28 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 186.30 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 13,711.00.

European shares rallied on Friday to erase weekly losses, with financials and commodity stocks leading the gains. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index added 1.3 per cent and ended the week about 0.5 per cent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index down 0.5 per cent or 133.40 points at 26,852.40 in early trade. The broader Topix index slipped 0.2 per cent or 3.95 points to 1,892.84.