Singapore shares pull back at Friday’s open after Wall Street ends mixed; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Friday (Dec 2) after Wall Street ended mixed, with many index counters trading in the red.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.7 per cent or 21.29 points to 3,271.44 as at 9.02 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 74 to 47, after 44.4 million securities worth S$86.9 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which lost 0.7 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.144 with 4.5 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust which fell 1.9 per cent or S$0.04 to S$2.02 with two million shares traded, as well as Singtel which gained 0.8 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.70 with two million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks fell in early morning trade. DBS was down 0..8 per cent or S$0.27 to S$34.68, UOB lost 0.8 per cent or S$0.24 to S$31.09, while OCBC was flat at S$12.35.

Other active index counters included ST Engineering , which slid 1.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$3.42, as well as Mapletree Logistics Trust , which declined 1.8 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.60.

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In the US, stocks ended mixed on Thursday after a sell-off in Salesforce weighed on the Dow, which closed 0.6 per cent lower at 34,396.53 points. The S&P 500 declined 0.08 per cent to 4,076.79 points, while the Nasdaq gained 0.13 per cent to 11,482.45 points.

In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index climbed 0.9 per cent to hit its highest since Aug 17. Investors were optimistic over the US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s hints of smaller interest rate hikes and China’s decision to soften its tone on strict Covid-19 curbs.