Singapore stocks open lower on Tuesday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares opened slightly lower on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) slipping 0.1 per cent or 3.52 points to 3,142.00 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 84 to 57, with 51.3 million securities worth S$65.8 million changing hands.

The most active counter by volume was Addvalue Technologies, with 4.6 million shares worth S$60,000 traded as at 9.04am. Its shares were down 0.1 Singapore cent or 7.7 per cent at 1.2 cents.

ComfortDelGro was also heavily traded in the morning, with 2.7 million shares worth S$4.4 million changing hands. The counter was down S$0.01 or 0.6 per cent at S$1.66. The mainboard-listed transport operator on Monday said it is looking to list its wholly-owned subsidiary ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Banking stocks were down in early trade. DBS fell S$0.02 or 0.1 per cent to S$30.65, UOB lost S$0.14 or 0.5 per cent to S$26.15, while OCBC dropped S$0.03 or 0.3 per cent to S$11.86.

In the US, Wall Street shrugged off early weakness and finished mostly higher on Monday, setting fresh records ahead of earnings reports from large US retailers and key economic releases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 35,625.40, up 0.3 per cent to close at a fifth straight record, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 4,479.70, also at a fifth straight record. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, however, declined 0.2 per cent to 14,793.76.

In Europe, a 10-day run of gains for stocks came to a halt on Monday following a surprise slowdown in China's economic indicators, with commodity-linked stocks falling the most. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.5 per cent to 473.45, easing from a record level scaled last week.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday after Wall Street's performance. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.5 per cent or 142.01 points to 27,665.20 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 0.4 per cent or 6.92 points to 1,931.90.