Singapore stocks fall at Thursday's open, tracking Wall Street sell-off; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Thursday, following Wall Street's weak lead overnight.

The benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) fell by 0.3 per cent or 8.05 points to 3,125.26 as at 9am. Gainers outnumbered losers 83 to 40 after 65.7 million securities worth S$94.3 million changed hands.

Property investment company Imperium Crown's shares were the most actively traded on Thursday morning, with 24.1 million shares worth S$410,000 changing hands within the first six minutes. The counter rose 30.8 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to 1.7 cents.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was a distant second. Some 11.1 million shares worth S$14.3 million traded flat at S$1.29 within the same amount of time.

Among the index counters, ComfortDelGro was the top gainer, rising 1.8 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.68 as at 9.04am. Meanwhile Dairy Farm fell 2.5 per cent or US$0.11 to US$4.32, making it the top loser.

The trio of local lenders were up in early trade. As at 9.07am, DBS rose 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$28.32, OCBC gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$11.64, while UOB grew 0.6 per cent or S$0.14 to S$25.58.

Over on Wall Street, despite a rally in petroleum-linked equities, stocks fell for a second straight session on Wednesday as investors shift to oil from tech. The tech-rich Nasdaq ended down 2 per cent at 12,961.89, with the biggest pain coming in the Nasdaq as tech giants including Apple, Facebook and Netflix slumped. The broad-based S&P 500 also dropped 0.6 per cent to 3,889.14, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished marginally negative at 32,420.06.

European stocks were subdued on Wednesday, as concerns about new lockdown measures overshadowed a surprise return to economic growth for the eurozone in March. After falling as much as 0.7 per cent earlier in the day, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended flat.

Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday despite uncertainties after falls on Wall Street and North Korea's launch of two projectiles. The Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.2 per cent, or 51.81 points, to 28,457.33 at the open, while the broader Topix index rose 0.7 per cent, or 12.45 points, to 1,941.03.