Singapore stocks: STI resumes Monday afternoon down 0.47% on day

SINGAPORE stocks resumed trading on Monday afternoon in negative territory, with the Straits Times Index down 0.47 per cent or 15.28 points on the day to 3,223.54 as at 1.04pm.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 245 to 118, after about 636.5 million securities worth S$358.4 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, AusGroup rose 12.2 per cent, or 0.5 Singapore cent to S$0.046 with 59.1 million shares traded, while Medtecs International gained 25 per cent, or one Singapore cent to S$0.05 cents with 37.6 million shares traded.

Banking stocks continued to trade weaker in afternoon trade - DBS fell 0.4 per cent, or 11 Singapore cents to S$25.89, UOB lost 0.7 per cent or 19 Singapore cents to S$26.44, and OCBC slipped 0.6 per cent or seven Singapore cents to S$10.95.

Other active securities included Yangzijiang Shipbuilding which dropped 1.7 per cent, or two Singapore cents to S$1.15, and City Developments which was up 1.1 per cent or 12 cents to S$11.25.

Elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong stocks fell with the Hang Seng Index dropping 0.7 per cent to 28,261.56.

China stocks opened higher, aided by gains from the country's oil producers amid the rise in oil prices on US-Middle East tensions. The CSI300 index rose 0.5 per cent to 4,165.50 at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6 per cent to 3,101.98.

MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index fell 0.74 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.97 per cent.