Singapore shares decline at Thursday's open; STI down 0.51% to 3,166.98

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index falling 0.51 per cent or 16.16 points to 3,166.98 as at 9.02am, after the US markets fell overnight on reports of possible new US-China trade frictions.

On the Singapore bourse, losers outnumbered gainers 69 to 29, or about seven securities down for every three up, after 38.4 million securities worth S$87.2 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings fell 1.4 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.39 with 7.1 million shares traded. Golden Agri-Resources headed down 1.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.27 with 2.2 million shares traded. Sembcorp Marine headed down 2.0 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.47 with two million shares traded.

Active index stocks included DBS Group Holdings, down 1.0 per cent or S$0.26 to S$25.17; OCBC Bank, down 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$11.01; and United Overseas Bank, down 0.04 per cent or S$0.01 to S$24.52.

In the region, Tokyo shares opened lower Thursday on Wall Street drops amid the intensifying of US-China trade and tech disputes. The Nikkei 225 index lost 0.47 per cent, or 100.50 points, to 21,182.87 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.39 per cent, or 6.09 points, to 1,540.12.

The US market saw benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 per cent to close at 25,776.61, leaving it essentially flat for the week according to AFP. Meanwhile, S&P 500 also fell 0.4 per cent to 2,856.27, while Nasdaq lost 0.5 per cent to finish at 7,750.84.

European shares meanwhile edged lower on Wednesday on unease over US-China trade war developments and Britain's uncertain exit from the European Union.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed down 0.08 per cent with losses on Italy's MIB and France's CAC offset by gains in Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX. The DAX closed 0.2 per cent higher, recovering from a 0.7 per cent fall earlier in the day.