Singapore stocks open slightly lower on Monday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares opened slightly lower on Monday (Dec 27) after the Christmas weekend, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 0.1 per cent or 2.01 points to 3,106.27 as at 9.03 am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 70 to 36, after 57.4 million securities worth S$15 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Hatten Land PH0 , which saw 32.4 million of its shares worth S$1.8 million traded as at 9.03 am. Its shares gained S$0.006 or 12.8 per cent to S$0.053.

The Catalist-listed Malaysia property developer on Monday said it has inked an agreement with Huawei International to jointly explore and develop business opportunities in renewable energy, data centres, cloud computing, enterprise intelligence and fintech infrastructure.

Among index stocks, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust C38U saw brisk trading, with 381,100 units worth S$760,000 changing hands. Its units were flat at S$1.99.

ST Engineering S63 was also actively traded, with 201,600 shares worth S$750,000 changing hands. The counter was down S$0.02 or 0.5 per cent at S$3.72.

The trio of local banks were down in early trade. DBS D05 fell S$0.05 or 0.2 per cent to S$32.56, UOB U11 lost S$0.10 or 0.4 per cent to S$26.79, while OCBC O39 slipped S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$11.32.

In the US, markets were closed on Friday (Dec 24) for the Christmas holiday.

Meanwhile, European shares closed lower in light holiday trading on Friday, following a recent rally in global shares on signs the Omicron variant might not derail the pace of economic recovery.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index slipped 0.1 per cent to 483.01 in a shortened trading session ahead of Christmas. The benchmark added 1.9 per cent last week.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened slightly lower in thin holiday trade on Monday as fears linger over the potential impact of the Omicron variant.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dipped 0.1 per cent or 21.37 points to 28,761.22 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.1 per cent or 2.39 points at 1,984.39.