Singapore shares fall at Friday’s open; STI down 0.5 per cent

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Friday (Mar 24), with banks opening in the red following the US Federal Reserve’s latest move to hike interest rates.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.5 per cent or 14.89 points to 3204,11. 

Losers outnumbered gainers 59 to 56, after 73.3 million securities worth S$60.3 million changed hands. 

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which fell by 3.5 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.109 with 35.8 million securities traded as at 9.02 am. Genting Singapore , another heavily traded counter, was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.09, with 4.7 million shares traded.

Banking shares were a sea of red in early morning trade. DBS fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.22 to S$33.27. UOB was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.14 to S$29.28, while OCBC fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$12.28. 

Other active stocks such as Yangzijiang Financial Holding was down 1.3 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.37 while Singtel slipped 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.39.

Wall Street stocks ended higher on Thursday as markets weighed the implications of the US central bank’s latest interest rate hike following turmoil in the banking sector. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.2 per cent higher at 32,105.25, while the broad-based S&P 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent to 3,948.72. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index also surged 1.0 per cent to 11,787.40.

In Europe, stocks inched down on Thursday with banks leading declines after the Bank of England followed the Fed and the Swiss National Bank in hiking rates amid worries of a banking contagion.

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The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.2 per cent lower at 446.22, after closing at its highest level in more than a week on Wednesday.