Singapore stocks open lower on Friday; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares fell on Friday (Apr 21) morning after global markets closed lower overnight.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.2 per cent or 5.66 points to 3,307.75.

Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 53 to 46 after 36.2 million securities worth S$36.4 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine was the top traded counter in terms of volume with 12.9 million shares changing hands, although the counter remained flat at S$0.123.

Another heavily traded counter was Thomson Medical, which was up 1.5 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.066 with 1.1 million shares traded.

Index counter Thai Beverage rose 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.665 at the open. Keppel Corp, another index counter, rose 0.5 per cent or S$0.03 to S$6.30 after the company on Thursday posted a 9 per cent rise in its revenue for the first fiscal quarter.

The trio of local banks were in the red. DBS fell S$0.13 or 0.4 per cent to S$32.54, and UOB inched down S$0.08 or 0.3 per cent to S$29.64. OCBC fell S$0.07 or 0.6 per cent to S$12.74.

Major US indices ended lower on Thursday following lacklustre corporate results from electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla and several regional banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3 per cent lower at 33,786.62, while the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.6 per cent to 4,129.79. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.8 per cent to 12,059.56.

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Over in Europe, shares ended lower for the second straight session on Thursday as earnings reports disappointed and carmakers fell after weak quarterly results from US EV-maker Tesla.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.2 per cent to 467.43 points.