Singapore stocks fall at Monday's open; STI down 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks tumbled in early trade on Monday (Feb 14) after US stocks dropped significantly overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.6 per cent or 20.10 points at 3,408.85 as at 9.04 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 108 to 61 after 134.5 million securities worth S$100.7 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine S51 was the most actively traded counter by volume on Monday morning with 43 million shares changing hands. The counter traded at S$0.087, up 1.2 per cent or S$0.001.

Catalist-listed Shen Yao A78 and Disa 532 were also among the most heavily traded securities. Both companies traded flat at S$0.003 and S$0.006 respectively.

Another active counter in early trade was Rex International 5WH . Shares of the oil exploration and production company traded up 6.4 per cent or S$0.025 at S$0.415.

The trio of local banks all traded lower on Monday morning. DBS D05 fell 0.9 per cent or S$0.34 to S$36.91, UOB U11 dropped 0.8 per cent or S$0.26 to S$32.34, while OCBC O39 was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.07 to S$13.26 as at 9.04 am.

Over on Wall Street, shares ended sharply lower on Friday for the second straight session, as investors worry about tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4 per cent to end at 34,738.06 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.9 per cent and closed at 4,418.64. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.8 per cent to 13,791.15.

Meanwhile, European shares ended in red on Friday after US inflation drove up bond yields. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.6 per cent lower.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened starkly lower on Monday after shares tumbled on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.9 per cent or 521.36 points at 27,174.72 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 1.5 per cent or 30.08 points to 1,932.53.