Singapore stocks: STI resumes Thursday afternoon down 0.42% on day

SINGAPORE stocks continued to retreat as trading resumed on Thursday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index declining 0.42 per cent or 13.41 points on the day to 3,202.12 as at 1.05pm.

Losers outnumbered gainers 158 to 135, after 651.9 million securities worth S$330.2 million changed hands.

P5 Capital shares were the most active on the bourse, up S$0.004 or 12.5 per cent to S$0.036 after 103.4 million shares were traded.

Tritech and TEE International were among the other securities most active by volume.

Index stock Singtel was up S$0.01 or 0.3 per cent to S$3.32, while Mapletree Commercial Trust rose S$0.01 or 0.4 per cent to S$2.38.

The three local banks all lost ground, with DBS down S$0.16 or 0.6 per cent to S$25.62, UOB declining S$0.10 or 0.4 per cent to S$26.02, and OCBC losing S$0.07 or 0.6 per cent to S$10.85.

Other Asian stocks also fell on Thursday after US President Donald Trump signed a bill backing Hong Kong protesters, spurring another threat of retaliation from China, and raising concerns about the prospect for an interim trade deal.

Japan's Topix index fell 0.1 per cent, South Korea's Kospi index dipped 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index bucked the trend, climbing 0.4 per cent.