Singapore shares fall at Wednesday’s open; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Wednesday (Jul 24) following a mixed performance in the United States and Europe.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.4 per cent or 12.57 points to 3,448.59 as at 9.03 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 61 to 43, after 38.8 million securities worth S$47.6 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Singtel, which lost 0.7 per cent or S$0.02 to S$3, with 3.8 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Hutchison Port Holdings Trust , which rose 3.1 per cent or US$0.004 to US$0.133, with 3.1 million units traded, and Mapletree Logistics Trust, which held steady at S$1.35 with 2.2 million units traded.

Banking stocks were down in early morning trade. DBS was trading 0.4 per cent or S$0.15 lower at S$36.60, UOB shed 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$32.81, while OCBC declined 0.4 per cent or S$0.06 to S$15.10.

On Wall Street, stocks finished Tuesday lower, with all three indices in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.1 per cent lower at 40,358.09. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.2 per cent to 5,555.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.1 per cent to 17,997.35.

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In Europe, shares ended slightly higher on Tuesday, supported by rallies in technology-related shares. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended 0.1 per cent higher.