Singapore stocks open lower on Thursday; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Thursday, in line with regional trends and overnight declines on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.4 per cent or 10.85 points to 2,832.22 points as at 9.02am

Losers outnumbered gainers 73 to 47, after 58.3 million securities worth S$50.6 million changed hands.

Among the most actively traded shares on Thursday morning was Moya Holdings Asia, which saw some 6.7 million shares change hands as at 9.02am. The counter was up 7.4 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 7.3 cents.

The Indonesian water-treatment company said on Wednesday it posted a post-tax profit of S$11.9 million for Q3 2020, nearly three times the S$4.2 million earned for the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding shares were also among the top three active counters in terms of volume, with 6.6 million shares worth S$6.4 million changing hands as at 9.02am. The counter was up 0.5 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 96 cents.

Shares of mm2 Asia were trading higher on Thursday, up 2.5 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to 16.4 cents as at 9.02am. The owner of Cathay Cineplexes is proposing to merge its cinema business with Golden Village cinemas, in a move that would create the biggest cinema operator in Singapore.

The trio of local banks were trading lower on Thursday morning. DBS was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.23 to S$25.22, UOB fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.16 to S$22.66, while OCBC slipped 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$10.06 as at 9.01am.

Over on Wall Street, major indices closed lower amid uncertainty over a new US relief package and rising coronavirus cases.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 per cent to finish the day at 30,068.81. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent to end at 3,672.82, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.9 per cent to end at 12,338.95.

In Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday as investors sought to lock in profits following falls on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.42 per cent or 113.38 points to 26,704.56 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.19 per cent or 3.39 points at 1,776.03.

The ASX 200 in Australia was also in the red, down 0.6 per cent to 6,691.5 in morning trade.