Singapore stocks open muted on Friday; STI up 0.02%

SINGAPORE stocks began trading on Friday (May 31) morning in slightly positive territory, after global markets closed mixed overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.02 per cent or 0.64 point to 3,324.02 as at 9.02 am. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 56 to 51 after 73.7 million securities worth S$71.1 million changed hands.

Active counters by volume included MM2 Asia , which was down 4.6 per cent or S$0.001 at S$0.021 with 9.3 million shares transacted, as well as Mapletree Logistics Trust , which fell 1.5 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.33 with 7.2 million shares traded. Seatrium , which lost 2.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.82, was also briskly traded with 4.3 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks traded mixed on Friday morning. DBS slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$35.58, while OCBC advanced 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$14.43. UOB went up 0.3 per cent or S$0.10 to S$30.66.

US indices closed Thursday lower, as a report showed slower economic growth and big techs’ shares tumbled on a disappointing Salesforce forecast. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.9 per cent at 38,111.48. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.6 per cent to 5,235.48, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1.1 per cent to 16,737.08.

Over in Europe, shares closed Thursday higher on lower government bond yields. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.6 per cent higher at 516.5 after falling in the last two sessions, hovering near a three-week low.