Singapore stocks fall at open, tracking Wall Street retreat; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares opened weaker on Wednesday following overnight losses on Wall Street amid inflation fears.

The weaker opening also comes as the Republic sees a continued climb in community cases of Covid-19, as well as rising worries on the impact of restricting the inflow of foreign workers from higher-risk countries on certain sectors.

Second Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said in Parliament on Tuesday that these restrictions are likely to persist for some time, as the authorities work towards managing the risk of Covid-19 community transmission in Singapore.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.5 per cent or 16.29 points to 3,127.98 as at 9.06am. Losers outnumbered gainers 99 to 70, after 119 million securities worth S$146.2 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust, which dropped 2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.47, with 8.6 million units changing hands as at 9.08am.

Other heavily traded securities include Sembcorp Marine, which increased 0.5 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 19.1 cents, with 7.7 million shares traded, and Singtel, which fell 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.39, with 6.4 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS was up 0.2 per cent or S$0.06 to S$29.50, UOB was down 0.2 per cent or S$0.06 to S$26.12, while OCBC lost 1.5 per cent or S$0.18 to S$12.13.

Other active index counters include City Developments, which declined 1.3 per cent or S$0.10 to S$7.48, and Ascott Trust, which slipped 1.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.02.

In the US, stocks closed lower on Tuesday as rising commodity prices and labour shortages fed fears that despite reassurances from the US Federal Reserve, near-term price spikes could translate into longer-term inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4 per cent to 34,269.16, the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.9 per cent to 4,152.1, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1 per cent to 13,389.43.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.5 per cent to 28,740.93 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.1 per cent to 1,907.97.