Singapore stocks open flat on Wednesday

SINGAPORE stocks opened almost unchanged on Wednesday (Jun 8) morning, after global markets ended mixed overnight. 

The Straits Times Index (STI) opened flat with a slight dip of 0.02 point to 3,231.52 as at 9.01 am. Gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 45 after 61.8 million securities worth S$53.3 million changed hands.

Procurri was the top traded counter by volume, remaining unchanged at S$0.42 after 8.8 million shares were transacted at the open.

Other heavily traded securities included 3Cnergy , which remained flat at S$0.006 with 3 million units traded, as well as Mencast , which gained 18.4 per cent or S$0.007 to S$0.045 with 2.9 million shares changing hands.

Among index counters, Mapletree Logistics Trust also saw brisk trading with 1.2 million units changing hands at the open. It gained S$0.02 or 1.2 per cent to S$1.68.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was down 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 at S$30.78 while OCBC fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$11.84. Meanwhile, UOB was up 0.5 per cent or S$0.13 to S$28.75. 

In the US, stocks finished another volatile session solidly higher on Tuesday, absorbing a World Bank warning about the global economy as inflation worries remained in focus.

The World Bank cut its global growth estimate to 2.9 per cent, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has sent grain and oil prices soaring.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.8 per cent at 33,180.14. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1 per cent to finish at 4,160.65, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.9 per cent to 12,175.23.

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Meanwhile, European shares fell on Tuesday as investors worried about the squeeze to economic growth from aggressive monetary policy tightening by central banks in a bid to tame rising inflation, while retail stocks declined after US retailer Target’s gloomy warning.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.3 per cent to 441.15, with the retail stocks index down 0.9 per cent after Target slashed its quarterly margin forecast for the second time in less than a month.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street rallies, with a cheap yen giving some support to exporters.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.6 per cent or 169.99 points at 28,113.94, while the broader Topix index was up 0.5 per cent or 8.71 points at 1,955.74.