Singapore shares muted at Thursday’s open; STI down 0.02%
SINGAPORE shares entered Thursday’s (May 23) morning session barely moved, amid a sleepy trading session following the Vesak Day public holiday break on Wednesday.
The Straits Times Index (STI) was muted at the open, inching down 0.02 per cent or 0.69 point to 3,307.21 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 70 to 63, after 64.3 million securities worth S$98.5 million changed hands.
The most active counter by volume was Golden Agri-Resources , which was up 1.9 per cent or S$0.005 at S$0.27, with 7.6 million shares traded.
Other heavily traded securities included Marco Polo Marine , which advanced 1.5 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.068, with 6.9 million shares traded, and Singtel , which was trading 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$2.41, with 4.6 million shares traded.
On Thursday, the telco posted a net loss of S$1.3 billion for the second half ended March, sinking into the red after accounting for exceptional losses.
Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS was trading 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 higher at S$35.78, UOB rose 0.3 per cent or S$0.09 to S$30.32, while OCBC shed 0.4 per cent or S$0.06 to S$14.32.
Singapore Airlines fell 1.2 per cent or S$0.08 to S$6.68. The national carrier met with a crisis late on Tuesday after one of its flights encountered severe turbulence on its way from London’s Heathrow Airport to Singapore, resulting in the death of a British man and multiple people’s injuries.
In the US, stocks retreated on Wednesday following mixed earnings reports as Federal Reserve meeting minutes highlighted inflation worries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.5 per cent lower at 39,671.04, while the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3 per cent to 5,307.01. Meanwhile, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.2 per cent to 16,801.54.
European shares closed at a one-week low on Wednesday, weighed down by a sell-off in automakers after a report on possible Chinese tariffs on imported cars rattled investors. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index was down 0.3 per cent to 521.18, pressured by an uptick in sovereign bond yields following data that indicated UK inflation eased less than expected in April.
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