Singapore stocks: STI resumes Friday afternoon down 0.53% on rising US-Middle East tensions

SINGAPORE stocks resumed trading on Friday afternoon in negative territory, reversing its morning gains as investors show concern over the US-Middle East geopolitical tensions after US air strikes killed a top Iranian commander.

The Straits Times Index fell 0.53 per cent or 17.25 points on the day to 3,234.75 as at 1.04pm. Decliners outnumbered advancers 234 to 152, after about 940.7 million securities worth S$544.4 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Interra Resource rose 14.4 per cent or 1.3 Singapore cents to S$0.103, with 64.6 million shares traded, while Rex International gained 5 per cent, or one Singapore cent to S$0.21, with 49.1 million shares traded.

The Trendlines Group continued to be one of the higher traded stocks on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), down 3.3 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to S$0.118, with 46.8 million shares traded.

Banking stocks faltered by the afternoon trade - DBS fell 0.7 per cent or 19 Singapore cents to S$25.92, UOB lost 0.5 per cent, or 14 Singapore cents to S$26.54, and OCBC slipped 0.5 per cent, or six Singapore cents to S$10.97.

Other active securities included Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings which rose 0.9 per cent, or one Singapore cent to S$1.17, and SGX which was down 1.8 per cent, or 16 Singapore cents to S$8.70.

Other Asian markets such as China and Hong Kong were also hit by investors spooked by rising US-Middle East tensions after the Pentagon and Iran confirmed that Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani and top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed early on Friday in a US air strike on their convoy at Baghdad airport.

The Hang Seng index declined by 0.2 per cent to 28,495.11, after climbing as much as 1.2 per cent to a six-month high; while China's CSI300 index dropped 0.4 per cent to 4,135.46 at the end of the morning session. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 3,076.01. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index dropped 0.09 per cent.