Singapore stocks open lower on Friday; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Friday (Aug 4) as the global markets continue to retreat.  

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 8.05 points or 0.2 per cent to 3,296.01. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 73 to 39 after 86.42 million securities worth S$60.1 million changed hands.

The most actively traded counter by volume was Addvalue Technologies with its share price up S$0.005, or 45.5 per cent after 32 million of its securities were transacted.

Seatrium had 17.9 million of its securities traded with its share price rose by S$0.001, or 0.8 per cent, to S$0.135. 

Another counter that was heavily traded was Yangzijiang Shipbuilding , with its share price increased 1.9 per cent to S$1.58 after 8.8 million of its securities changed hands. 

The trio of local banks showed mixed results in early trade. DBS rose S$0.34 or 1 per cent to S$34.10, following the release of its Q2 2023 financial results on Thursday morning. 

UOB dropped S$1.00 or 3.4 per cent to S$28.82.

OCBC was down by S$0.18 or 1.4 per cent to trade at S$12.86. The bank reported a 34 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit to S$1.7 billion for the second quarter ended June, before the market opened. 

Wall Street stocks continued to falter as investors awaited earnings reports from major tech companies and official employment data to be released on Friday.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2 per cent to 35,215.89, while the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent to 4,501.85. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 13,959.72.

The European market also hit a three-week low due to disappointing earnings reports and elevated US bond yields.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.6 per cent to 457.93, ending its third straight session of losing.