Singapore stocks fall at Thursday's open; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Thursday (Nov 11) after Wall Street ended with sharp losses overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dipped 0.4 per cent or 13.15 points to 3,218.17 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 70 to 57 after 67.5 million securities worth S$75.5 million changed hands.

Geo Energy Resources RE4 was the top gainer of the morning in terms of volume, rising S$0.01 or 2.9 per cent to S$0.35 after 10.2 million shares were traded. The Indonesian coal producer on Nov 10 posted record profits and revenue from operations in its third quarter ended Sep 30, 2021 as coal prices reached historic highs.

Keppel Reit K71U was also actively traded at the open, falling S$0.05 or 4.4 per cent to S$1.10 with some 5.5 million units changing hands.

Index counter ComfortDelGro C52 was the third most actively traded in terms of volume on the morning of Nov 11. The land transport operator declined S$0.04 or 2.5 per cent to S$1.57 with 3.6 million shares traded.

This comes after the group on Wednesday (Nov 10) said it was no longer pursuing an initial public offering for its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia on the Australian Stock Exchange.

The trio of local banks were a sea of red at the open. DBS was down 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 to S$32, UOB fell S$0.27 or 1 per cent to trade at S$27.42, while OCBC slipped 0.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$11.77 as at 9.02 am.

In the US, shares fell sharply on Wednesday (Nov 10) after consumer inflation hit a 30-year high, and as investors headed for the exits after a streak of gains over the last few weeks.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7 per cent to finish the day at 36,079.94, and the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent to 4,646.71. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 1.7 per cent to end at 15,622.71.

European stocks closed at a record high on Wednesday (Nov 10) even as technology stocks fell amid fears of increased competition, which weighed on popular online food delivery companies.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.2 per cent at 483.76 points, with media and energy stocks among the top gainers.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday (Nov 11) as concern grew that US inflation could prompt more aggressive central bank policies to contain prices.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.2 per cent or 62.54 points at 29,044.24 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.1 per cent or 2.08 points to 2,005.88.