Singapore stocks fall at Tuesday's open; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Tuesday (Nov 16), after Wall Street edged lower on Monday (Nov 15) ahead of key retail sales data and earnings.

The Straits Times Index (STI) nudged down 0.2 per cent or 7.91 points to 3,232.67 as at 9.02 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 74 to 55 after 72 million securities worth S$51.9 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine S51 was the top gainer of the morning in terms of volume, rising S$0.001 or 1.2 per cent to S$0.087 after 39.5 million shares were traded.

Singapore Press Holdings T39 was also actively traded at open, rising S$0.04 or 1.7 per cent to S$2.37 after 2.6 million shares changed hands.

This comes a day after a consortium comprising Hotel Properties, businessman Ong Beng Seng, and two Temasek-linked entities, CLA and Mapletree raised its offer for SPH.

Index counter Genting Singapore G13 was among the most actively traded securities on Tuesday morning, with 8.1 million shares traded. The counter remained flat at S$0.825.

The trio of local banks were a sea of red at the open. DBS was down 1 per cent or S$0.32 to S$31.87, UOB fell S$0.06 or 0.2 per cent to trade at S$27.62, while OCBC slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$11.86 as at 9.02 am.

In the US, Wall Street edged lower on Monday ahead of key retail sales data and earnings which are expected to shed light on the state of US consumers ahead of the shopping season.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial average fell 0.1 per cent to 36,087.45, while the broad-based S&P 500 was flat at 4,682.80. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped less than 0.1 per cent to 15,853.85.

Meanwhile, European shares hit another record peak on Monday after comments from the European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde helped beat back bets of tighter monetary policy, while a fall in miners kept gains at bay.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.4 per cent higher at a new peak of 488.43 points.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened mixed on Tuesday after a US rally halted, with investors shifting their focus to a US-China online summit later in the day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.1 per cent at 29,762.48 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.2 per cent at 2,052.03.