Singapore stocks fall on Wall Street losses; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Tuesday (Jun 28) morning, tracking faltering Wall Street stocks.

The Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.3 per cent or 10.78 points to 3,126.76 as at 9.02 am. Decliners outnumbered advancers 65 to 42 after 43.9 million securities worth S$42.5 million changed hands.

Watches.com was the top traded counter by volume, losing 16.7 per cent or S$0.003 to S$0.015 with some 7.2 million units traded in early trading.

The Catalist-listed company was issued a notice of compliance by Singapore Exchange’s regulatory arm on Monday, over a series of transactions that would result in joint investments and cross-shareholdings. 

Other heavily traded securities include Kim Heng , which rose 2.1 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.099 with 4.8 million shares changing hands, as well as Rex International , which jumped 3.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.285 with 3.4 million shares traded in the morning.

Among index counters, Singtel saw brisk trading with 1.4 million shares changing hands at the open. It was down 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.58.

On Monday, news outlet The Australian reported that Singtel was looking to list its Australian subsidiary, Optus, through an initial public offering (IPO), citing unnamed sources. The telco issued a statement to refute this news, adding that it had no plans to list Optus through an IPO at the moment and that the report is “highly speculative”.

The trio of local banks were all lower in early trade. As at 9.02 am, DBS fell 0.6 per cent or S$0.19 to S$30.02, UOB opened 0.5 per cent or S$0.13 lower at S$26.42 and OCBC declined 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$11.37.

In the US, worries about slowing economic growth and interest rate highs persist. After their positive close last week, Wall Street stocks dipped on Monday.

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Stocks to watch: Singtel, UOB, Isetan, Sinarmas Land, Watches.com

Economists are increasingly pessimistic about the potential for US policy makers to engineer a “soft landing” as central banks tighten monetary policy, reversing after a long period of rock-bottom borrowing rates due to surging inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.2 per cent at 31,438.26. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 per cent to 3,900.11, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.7 per cent to 11,523.83.

In Europe, shares jumped to close at a two-week high on Monday, led by a relaxation of China’s Covid-19 restrictions, which could reduce pressure on supply chains and help to ease inflation woes.

The benchmark pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.5 per cent, extending Friday’s gains. But lingering worries about inflation were evident. Trading remained volatile as investors tried to assess the impact from rising interest rates globally and soaring price pressures on corporate earnings and economic growth.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo tracked US losses to open lower on Tuesday.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.23 per cent, or 61.25 points, at 26,810.02 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.01 per cent, or 0.13 points, at 1,887.29.