Singapore shares inch down at Friday’s open; STI down 0.1%
Vivienne Tay
SINGAPORE stocks opened slightly lower on Friday (Jan 12) following a muted performance on Wall Street overnight.
The data release on Thursday showed that US consumer prices rose more than expected in December, showing signs that it was still premature for the Federal Reserve to be cutting interest rates.
On the Singapore Exchange, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.1 per cent or 3.55 points to 3,197.86 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 64 to 47, after 34.7 million securities worth S$40.4 million changed hands.
The most active counter by volume was Seatrium , which gained 0.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.113 with 3.8 million shares traded.
Other heavily traded securities included Thai Beverage Public Company , which lost 1.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.535, with 3.4 million shares traded, as well as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding , which declined 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.58 with 1.5 million shares traded.
Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was nearly flat at S$32.71, UOB added 0.6 per cent or S$0.16 to S$28.49, while OCBC slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$12.88.
US stocks struggled to advance on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up less than 0.1 per cent at 37,711.02. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.1 per cent to 4,780.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index remained flat at 14,970.19.
In Europe, shares closed lower on Thursday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended 0.8 per cent lower, marking its third straight day of losses with banks leading the retreat.
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