Singapore shares fall at Monday’s open; STI down 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks started the week in negative territory on Monday (Dec 11), contrasting global markets, which finished the previous week higher as traders bet on central banks being done with interest rate cuts.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.6 per cent or 19.37 points to 3,091.36 as at 9.02 am. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 71 to 56, after 105.3 million securities worth S$55.5 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Seatrium, which held steady at S$0.109 with 58.2 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Marco Polo Marine , which rose 2 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.051 with 3.7 million shares transacted, and Genting Singapore , which lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.975, with 3.1 million shares changing hands.

Local banking stocks fell in early morning trade. DBS was down 0.7 per cent or S$0.22 at S$31.38, UOB slipped 0.4 per cent or S$0.10 to S$27.48, while OCBC fell 0.9 per cent or S$0.11 to S$12.54.

Other active index counters included ST Engineering , which shed 1.6 per cent or S$0.06 to S$3.71, and CapitaLand Investment , which declined 2.6 per cent or S$0.08 to S$3.02.

SEE ALSO

Stocks to watch: CapitaLand Investment, Keppel Corp, Genting Singapore, Keppel DC Reit

The real estate investment manager said in a profit guidance on Friday that it expects fair value losses on its investment property portfolio and a decreased net profit for FY2023 on the year.

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday as solid jobs data reassured investors, supporting the market to end on a more positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.4 per cent higher at 36,247.87. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to 4,604.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.5 per cent to 14,403.97.

European shares climbed on Friday, briefly hitting their highest level since February 2022. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index finished 0.7 per cent higher for the day at 472.26 and 1.3 per cent up for the week.