Singapore stocks fall at Thursday's open; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE shares fell in early trade on Thursday (Nov 18), after Wall Street slipped into the red overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) nudged down 0.3 per cent or 10.47 points to 3,222.21 as at 9.02 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 80 to 57, after 64.7 million securities worth S$90.1 million changed hands.

Singapore Press Holdings T39 was the top gainer in terms of volume. The counter opened flat at S$2.37, after 8.2 million shares were traded.

Singapore fibre optics cable owner NetLink NBN Trust CJLU was also actively traded at the open. The counter was flat at S$1.01, with 4.7 million shares changing hands.

Index counter Singtel Z74 was among the most actively traded counters on Thursday morning, with 2.7 million shares traded. The counter slipped S$0.02 or 0.8 per cent to S$2.50.

Among the trio of local banks, only DBS saw gains at the open, rising S$0.07 or 0.2 per cent to S$32.28.

Meanwhile, UOB fell S$0.19 or 0.7 per cent to S$27.39, while OCBC nudged down S$0.04 or 0.3 per cent to trade at S$11.77 as at 9.02 am.

In the US, stocks gave up ground on Wednesday (Nov 17) but remained near record highs with markets digesting divergent data on retail earnings and housing.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.6 per cent to 35,931.05, the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent to 4,688.67, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.3 per cent to 15,921.57.

Meanwhile, European stocks closed at a record high on Wednesday, rising for the sixth straight session, as positive earnings reports helped overshadow worries that soaring petrol prices were feeding into inflationary pressures.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.2 per cent higher to a new peak of 489.95.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday with investors disheartened by Wall Street falls on profit-taking.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.3 per cent at 29,603.21 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.2 per cent to 2,033.69.