Singapore stocks open lower on Monday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares fell on Monday (Apr 24) morning despite gains in US and Europe markets.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.1 per cent or 4.13 points to 3,317.69. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 48 to 40 after 17.8 million securities worth S$21.6 million changed hands.

ESR-Logos Reit was the top traded counter in terms of volume with 3.2 million shares changing hands, although the counter remained flat at S$0.325.

Other heavily traded securities included index counter Thai Beverage, which was down 1.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.65, as well as agribusiness giant Japfa, which fell 4.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.22.

Thomson Medical, however, rose 1.5 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.066.

The trio of local banks were in the red. DBS inched down 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$32.59, and UOB fell 0.4 per cent or S$0.13 to S$29.56. OCBC fell 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$12.76.

Major US indices closed slightly higher on Friday ahead of this week’s deluge of major earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.1 per cent higher at 33,808.96. The broad-based S&P 500 also edged up 0.1 per cent to 4,133.52, as did the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index, which stood at 12,072.46.

Over in Europe, shares ended higher on Friday as strong quarterly earnings boosted shares of SAP and EssilorLuxottica, offsetting a slump in miners.

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The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 0.4 per cent to 469 points.