Singapore stocks open lower on Friday; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Friday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) slipping 0.4 per cent or 12.65 points to 3,170.15 as at 9.02am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 81 to 67, with 98.9 million securities worth S$71.4 million changing hands.

The most active counter by volume was Oceanus, with 38.3 million shares worth S$1.5 million traded as at 9.02am. Its shares were up 0.3 Singapore cent or 8.1 per cent at four cents.

BlackGold Natural Resources was also heavily traded in the morning, with 2.8 million shares worth S$40,000 changing hands. The counter was down 0.1 Singapore cent or 6.7 per cent at 1.4 cents. The Indonesian coal miner on Thursday said its planned acquisition of Mongolian mining and energy firm Tengri Coal and Energy has been scrapped.

Among index stocks, Genting Singapore saw brisk trading. Its shares were up 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.6 per cent at 80.5 cents. The hospitality and integrated resorts group on Thursday posted a profit of S$88.2 million for the six months ended June, reversing a year-ago loss, as operations at Resorts World Sentosa are open once again, although with fewer visitors than in pre-pandemic days.

Banking stocks were down in early trade. DBS fell S$0.27 or 0.9 per cent to S$30.97, UOB lost S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent to S$26.77, while OCBC dropped S$0.27 or 2.2 per cent to S$12.02.

In the US, Wall Street finished at fresh records again on Thursday after a choppy session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 35,499.85, inching up less than 15 points to secure a third straight record. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to finish at 4,460.83, also a third straight record, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 per cent to 14,816.26.

European shares rose on Thursday, hitting yet another record high, as strong earnings from insurers and M&A activity in the UK helped offset a fall in mining stocks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index inched up 0.1 per cent, extending gains to a ninth consecutive session.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened flat on Friday as investors weighed gains on Wall Street against worries over US inflation and rising coronavirus infections in Japan. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dipped 0.03 per cent or 7.83 points to 28,007.19 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.1 per cent or 1.56 points at 1,955.11.