Singapore shares open lower on Friday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares started trading in slightly negative territory on Friday (Jul 21), following mixed trading sessions in the US and Europe.

As at 9.02 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) was down 3.17 points or 0.1 per cent at 3,271.21. Across the broader market, advancers outnumbered decliners 59 to 52 as 57.2 million securities worth S$55.8 million changed hands.

Index counter Seatrium was the most actively traded in terms of volume, falling 0.7 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.146 after 27.9 million of its shares were transacted.

Genting Singapore , another STI constituent, was also briskly traded, shedding 0.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.945 after 4.3 million of its shares changed hands.

SinoCloud Group remained unchanged at S$0.04 at the open after 1.8 million shares were traded.

The three local banks were mixed in early trade. DBS lost 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$32.50; UOB gained 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$28.46, and OCBC opened flat at S$12.64.

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US stocks were mixed on Thursday, after the Nasdaq tumbled even as the Dow rose for the ninth straight session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 35,225.18, up 0.5 per cent, extending a rally, while the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent to 4,534.87. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 2.1 per cent to 14,063.31, following sell-offs in Netflix and Tesla on mixed earnings.

Over in Europe, the Stoxx 600 index closed at a one-month high on Thursday, supported by miners, banks and healthcare sectors, although chip stocks saw a heavy sell-off after Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC’s bleak sales forecast. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.4 per cent at 463.93, extending gains to the third straight session. The index hit a day’s high of 464.17 points.