Singapore stocks open lower on Monday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks started the trading week lower on Monday (Mar 14), with the Straits Times Index (STI) dropping 0.1 per cent or 3.48 points to 3,246.18 as at 9.04 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 91 to 68, as some 52 million securities worth S$83.1 million changed hands.

Geo Energy Resources RE4 was the most actively traded counter on Monday morning, with 3.8 million securities transacted. The Indonesian coal producer's share price fell 5.1 per cent or S$0.025 at S$0.47.

Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (Ascendas Reit) and oil and gas company Rex International 5WH were also heavily traded.

Over 2.7 million units of the Reit A17U were traded. Its unit price dropped 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.86.

As for Rex International, more than 2.5 million shares were transacted, and its price fell 1.3 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.375.

Two local banks started trading higher on Monday. DBS D05shares went up 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$33.31, while OCBC O39 shares rose 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$11.74.

UOB U11 shares fell 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 at S$30.07.

Over in the United States, major stock indices finished trading lower on Friday, capping a turbulent week of trading on Wall Street as investors were rattled over the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The US, European Union and G7 countries announced they would end normal trade relations with Moscow in response to its attack on its neighbour, while Washington and Brussels also cut off exports of luxury goods to Russia.

Traders are bracing for this week's 2-day Federal Reserve meeting beginning Tuesday, when the US central bank has strongly signalled it will increase interest rates for the first time since Covid-19 broke out to fight inflation.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7 per cent to 32,944.19, while the broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.3 per cent to 4,204.31. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.2 per cent to 12,843.81.

European stocks fared better, as they closed on Friday with their biggest weekly gain this year.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 1.0 per cent higher, and snapped 3 weeks of losses, as stellar gains for beaten down stocks outweighed declines from worries over the fallout from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday after sharp drops in the previous session as investors remained cautious over uncertainties linked to the Ukraine crisis.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.8 per cent or 211.58 points at 25,374.36 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was up 0.8 per cent or 14.00 points at 1,813.54.