Singapore shares slip at Thursday’s open tracking global retreat; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks started Thursday (Feb 23) on a softer note, after markets in US and Europe fell overnight. Local banks and index counters also started the morning mixed.

The Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.1 per cent or 3.8 points to 3,296.24 as at 9.03 am. Gainers outnumbered losers slightly 58 to 55, after 91 million securities worth S$91 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine , which lost 3 per cent or S$0.004 to S$0.13, with 40.7 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Boustead Projects, which dropped 3.5 per cent or S$0.035 to S$0.955, with 10.2 million shares traded, as well as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which was down 1.5 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.33, with 7.6 million shares traded.

On Wednesday, Boustead Singapore said it will raise its offer price to take Boustead Projects private to S$0.95 per share from S$0.90 previously. Its revised offer price is final. Meanwhile, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding posted a 30 per cent drop in H2 net profit to S$1.4 billion yuan (S$272.3 million).

Meanwhile, Keppel Corp was trading 27.9 per cent or S$2.05 lower at S$5.29. The counter started trading on an ex-distribution basis on Thursday. This means those who bought the stock from that date will no longer be entitled to the distribution in specie of 19.1 Sembcorp Marine shares per Keppel share held.

Banking stocks were mostly down in early morning trade, with DBS was flat at S$34.66 and OCBC was trading 0.9 per cent or S$0.12 lower at S$12.78.

UOB declined 1.5 per cent or S$0.46 to S$30.53. This came as the lender reported a 24 per cent climb in H2 profit to S$2.6 billion. Full-year profit stood at S$4.6 billion, slightly below consensus estimates.

Other active index counters included Singapore Airlines , which was up 1 per cent or S$0.06 to S$5.83 and CapitaLand Investment , which shed 0.5 per cent or S$0.02 to S$3.83.

SEE ALSO

Stocks to watch: UOB, CapitaLand Investment, City Developments, Yangzijiang, Keppel Corp

The real estate investment manager on Thursday reported a 33.8 per cent drop in net profit to S$428 million for the six months ended Dec 31, 2022, on lower gains from the revaluation of investment properties and asset recycling.

In the US, Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Wednesday, as investors process the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which revealed that nearly all policymakers were in favour of a smaller interest rate hike.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3 per cent lower at 33,045.09. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.3 per cent to 3,991.05, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1 per cent to 11,507.07.

In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.3 per cent lower, with banks falling 1.6 per cent, retreating from a more than one-year high in the previous session.