Singapore stocks: STI resumes Thursday afternoon down 0.29% after virus tally spikes

SINGAPORE shares reversed course to trade in negative territory on Thursday afternoon, as investors mulled over a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases reported in China's Hubei province due to a revised method of diagnosis.

Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index slipped 9.23 points or 0.29 per cent to 3,214.14 as at 1.02pm. 

Losers outnumbered gainers 175 to 155, after about 757.3 million securities worth S$556.5 million changed hands. 

Medtecs International was the most heavily traded by volume, rising 0.7 Singapore cent or 6.3 per cent to 11.8 cents, after 82.9 million shares changed hands.

Another active counter was OEL (Holdings), which rose 0.4 Singapore cent or 15.4 per cent to S$0.03, with 72.1 million shares traded. This comes after the Catalist-listed property management firm on Wednesday said it plans to take on new investors.

The trio of banking stocks were mixed in the afternoon session. DBS gained S$0.05 or 0.2 per cent to S$25.47 on a cum-dividend basis after the lender reported a 14 per cent boost in net profit to S$1.51 billion for its fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, UOB shed S$0.06 or 0.2 per cent to S$26.12, and OCBC Bank lost S$0.04 or 0.4 per cent to S$10.98. Both banks will announced their FY2019 results on Feb 21.

Singtel declined S$0.07 or 2.1 per cent to S$3.27, after the telco posted a 23.8 per cent slide in its third-quarter net profit on Thursday morning. 

Meanwhile, Mapletree Logistics Trust added S$0.06 or 3.1 per cent to S$1.99.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan's Topix dropped 0.3 per cent while South Korea's Kospi gained 0.5 per cent on Thursday afternoon.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.1 per cent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 per cent. Australian stocks edged up 0.1 per cent.