Singapore stocks: STI resumes Tuesday afternoon at 3,192.65, down 0.4% on day

SINGAPORE stocks edged down as trading resumed on Tuesday afternoon, with the Straits Times Index dipping 0.40 per cent or 12.81 points to 3,192.65 as at 1.00pm.

This was after a weak opening in the morning dragged down by tech stocks overnight on Wall Street after Google began to sever ties with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, amid the US-China trade war.

On the Singapore bourse, losers outnumbered gainers 212 to 100, or about two securities up for every one down, after 782.4 million securities worth S$556.2 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings retreated 2.7 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.43 with 21.9 million shares traded. Nico Steel Holdings fell 20 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.004 with 15.6 million shares traded. Genting Singapore shed 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.885 with 14.2 million shares traded.

Banking stocks continued to trade lower, with DBS Group Holdings down 0.5 per cent or S$0.13 to S$25.76; OCBC Bank, down 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$11.12; and United Overseas Bank, down 0.6 per cent or S$0.15 to S$24.83.

Other active index stocks include Singtel, which was up 0.6 per cent or S$0.02 to S$3.16; and Ascendas Reit, which was down 0.7 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.91.

In the region, Australian shares slipped on Tuesday after a US crackdown on Chinese telecom giant Huawei sent global equities tumbling. This saw the S&P/ASX 200 index falling 16.6 points or 0.3 per cent to 6,459.50 by 0102 GMT. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index declined 12.24 points or 0.1 per cent to 10,221.91.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong stocks started on Tuesday with fresh losses, with the Hang Seng Index slipped 0.42 per cent or 116.21 points to 27,671.40. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.17 per cent or 5.01 points to 2,865.59 and the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, eased 0.25 per cent or 3.88 points to 1,517.84.