Singapore stocks open lower on Friday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (Nov 18), following a poor showing in global markets.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) dipped by 0.1 per cent or 1.9 points to 3,284.14. Losers outnumbered gainers 52 to 44 after 35.3 million securities worth S$50.9 million changed hands.

VCPlus was the top-traded counter by volume at the open, with 8.8 million shares transacted. This comes after the Catalist-listed company announced that its subsidiary had obtained in-principle approval to provide custodial services for capital market products, including tokenised securities. Shares of VCPlus rose 40 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.007.

Index counters Singtel and Thai Beverage were also heavily traded. Singtel shed 2.9 per cent or S$0.08 to S$2.71 with 5.8 million shares traded, while ThaiBev gained 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.62 with 1.9 million shares traded.

The trio of local banks all opened Friday stronger, led by DBS , which rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.08 to S$35.69. OCBC increased 0.16 per cent or S$0.20 to S$12.49, and UOB hiked 0.1 per cent or S$0.30 to S$30.19.

In the US, stocks slipped for a second consecutive day, ending mostly lower on concerns that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes could trigger a US recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was essentially flat, closing at 33,546.32, but the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent to 3,946.56, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 per cent to finish at 11,144.96.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the FTSE 100 index slipped on Thursday after briefly hitting a one-week low, while midcap stocks cut losses sharply after the government set out plans to cut spending and raise taxes, reversing course after a market plunge over unfunded tax cuts. The region-wide Stoxx 600 index closed Thursday 0.4 per cent or 1.8 points lower, at 428.38.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened higher on Friday despite falls on Wall Street.

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Stocks to watch: Sembcorp, VCPlus

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.2 per cent or 67.02 points to 27,997.59 in early morning trade, while the broader Topix index climbed 0.4 per cent or 7.25 points to 1,973.53.