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

SINGAPORE stocks dipped in early trade on Thursday (Apr 7), tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as investors pivoted towards a sharper focus on the US central bank's plans to fight inflation following the release of US Federal Reserve meeting minutes.

The Straits Times Index (STI) shed 0.6 per cent or 21.97 points to 3,400.98 as at 9.02am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 97 to 38 after 60 million securities worth S$92.5 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine was the most actively traded counter of the morning in terms of volume, remaining flat at S$0.10 with some 6.8 million securities traded.

Units of Mapletree Logistics Trust also saw brisk activity in early trade. The counter slid S$0.02 or 1.1 per cent to S$1.85 after some 2.4 million units worth S$5.5 million were transacted.

Among index counters, Singtel fell S$0.03 or 1.1 per cent to trade at S$2.63 as 7.3 million of its shares changed hands.

The trio of local banks were a sea of red in early trade. As at 9.03am, DBS was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.19 to S$35.56, UOB fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.08 to S$31.67, while OCBC slipped 0.4 per cent or S$0.05 to S$12.28.

Over on Wall Street, all main indexes fell on Wednesday with steep declines in tech and other growth stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144.67 points or 0.4 per cent to 34,496.51, the S&P 500 lost 43.97 points or 1 per cent to 4,481.15 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 315.35 points or 2.2 per cent to 13,888.82.

In Europe, shares fell on Wednesday as investors grappled with the twin worries of aggressive US interest rate hikes potentially hurting growth and more Western sanctions on Russia further stoking inflation.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index broke its 3-day winning streak and fell 1.5 per cent to log its worst day in nearly a month. Losses were broad-based, with technology and travel stocks the biggest drags.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday amid surging US bond yields.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.2 per cent or 325.66 points to 27,024.64 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 1.3 per cent or 24.24 points to 1,899.79.