Singapore shares open lower on Friday; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares started trading in negative territory on Friday (Jul 5) despite gains in the European market overnight.

At 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) opened 0.2 per cent or 6.74 points lower at 3,433.14. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 52 to 48 after 51.6 million securities worth S$54.1 million changed hands.

One of the most actively traded counters by volume was Singtel , which fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.87, with 3.5 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Genting Singapore, which declined 0.6 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.845. Shares of Yoma Strategic tumbled 2.6 per cent, or S$0.004 to S$0.153.

Banking stocks were trading down at the open. DBS was down 0.2 per cent or S$0.07 to S$37.91. UOB fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.09 to S$32.48. OCBC slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$15.10.

Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Thursday, following varied economic data in a holiday-shortened session. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent to 5,537.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.9 per cent to 18,188.3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average meanwhile lost 0.1 per cent at 39,308.

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In Europe, shares rose amid optimism around US interest rate cuts following soft economic data. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.6 per cent to 517.54.