SINGAPORE shares opened slightly higher on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) edging up 0.1 per cent or 4.42 points to 3,082.11 as at 9.03am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 100 to 61, after 145 million securities worth S$78.5 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Oceanus Group 579, which saw 54.4 million of its shares worth S$2.1 million traded as at 9.03am. Its shares gained 0.5 Singapore cent or 14.7 per cent to 3.9 cents. The abalone producer on Wednesday said it has exited the Singapore Exchange's watch list after nearly six years.

Hatten Land PH0 : PH0 0% was also actively traded, with 7.3 million shares worth S$450,000 changing hands. The counter was up 0.2 Singapore cent or 3.3 per cent at 6.3 cents.

The property developer on Wednesday said it has signed an agreement with Frontier Digital Asset Management to share proceeds from jointly operating at least 1,000 cryptocurrency mining rigs within the group's properties in Malaysia.

Among index stocks, Genting Singapore G13 : G13 0% saw brisk trading, with 7.7 million shares worth S$5.6 million changing hands. Its shares were up 0.5 Singapore cent or 0.7 per cent at 72.5 cents.

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The trio of local banks were up in early trade. DBS D05 rose S$0.16 or 0.5 per cent to S$30.12, UOB U11 gained S$0.07 or 0.3 per cent to S$25.70, while OCBC O39 : O39 0% advanced S$0.08 or 0.7 per cent to S$11.58.

In the US, stocks tumbled on Tuesday as traders worried about a strengthening dollar, high oil prices, political impasse in Europe's biggest economy Germany, and US debt ceiling concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 569.38 points or 1.6 per cent to 34,299.99, the broad-based S&P 500 lost 90.48 points or 2 per cent to 4,352.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 423.29 points or 2.8 per cent to 14,546.68.

Meanwhile, European stocks on Tuesday sank to their lowest in a week as a surge in government bond yields knocked high-growth technology shares, with fresh signs of a slowdown in China's economy weighing on investor sentiment.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 2.2 per cent, its biggest one-day decline in over two months as a jump in US Treasury yields signalled that investors are bracing for higher rates and the risk of persistent inflation.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday on global market jitters, as worries swirled around a strengthening dollar, rising oil prices and the possibility of a US debt default.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 2 per cent or 602.55 points to 29,581.41 in early trade, while the broader Topix index tumbled 2.1 per cent or 43.83 points to 2,037.94.