Singapore stocks inch lower at Tuesday's open; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares nudged slightly lower on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index slipping 3.2 points or 0.1 per cent to 2,594.65 as at 9.02am.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 87 to 36, after about 46.4 million securities worth S$58.8 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Singtel rose S$0.03 or 1.1 per cent to S$2.80, with 2.6 million shares traded, while Yangzijiang Shipbuilding gained S$0.01 or 1 per cent to S$1.03, with 1.5 million shares traded.

The trio of banking stocks were mixed in the early session of trading. DBS lost S$0.17 or 0.9 per cent to S$18.93, United Overseas Bank fell S$0.09 or 0.5 per cent to S$19.82, while OCBC Bank gained S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$8.81.

Other active index securities included CapitaLand Mall Trust which shed S$0.05 or 2.7 per cent to S$1.82, while Biolidics rose 4.5 Singapore cents or 11.8 per cent to 42.5 cents.

Earlier on Monday, Singapore-based cancer diagnostics company Biolidics said it can now distribute, market and sell its Covid-19 rapid test kits in the US.

Over in the US, an unprecedented plunge in oil prices sent Wall Street stocks spiralling down overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.4 per cent to finish the session at 23,650.44. Meanwhile, the broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.8 per cent to close at 2,823.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq ended down 1 per cent to 8,560.73.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, equities tracked Wall Street stocks to open lower, with investors on edge as oil prices crashed into negative territory for the first time in history. Japan's Topix fell 0.9 per cent, and South Korea's Kospi shed 0.7 per cent, while Australia stocks sank 1.1 per cent.