Singapore shares edge down at Tuesday's open; STI down 0.06% to 3,344.50

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index heading down 0.06 per cent or 1.89 points to 3,344.50 as at 9.01am, amid a slew of corporate results and investor anticipation of a Fed rate cut this week.

On the Singapore bourse, gainers outnumbered losers 53 to 42, or about five securities up for every four down, after 30.2 million securities worth S$61.2 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Singtel stayed unchanged at S$3.30 with 2.8 million shares traded.

Sembcorp Marine shed 4.9 per cent or S$0.07 to S$1.36 with 2.7 million shares traded, following news of the rig builder narrowing its second-quarter net loss to S$8.5 million, compared with S$55.6 million a year ago. This was due to an accelerated depreciation of S$11 million booked for the second quarter, along with S$6 million tax credit booked for the same period.

Mapletree Logistics Trust slipped 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.55 with 2.4 million shares traded.

Banking stocks opened weaker, with DBS Group Holdings down 0.7 per cent or S$0.19 to S$26.45; OCBC Bank down 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$11.73; and United Overseas Bank down 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$26.69.

Other active index stocks included CapitaLand Commercial Trust, flat at S$2.09; City Developments, up 0.7 per cent or S$0.07 to S$9.68.

Sheng Siong Group headed up 0.9 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.12 with 0.8 million shares traded, after it posted a higher second quarter net profit of S$18.42 million, up 7.4 per cent from a year ago.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Tuesday on weaker yen and investor buy-ins on the dips prior to decisions by central banks in US and Japan. The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.60 per cent or 128.95 to 21,745.75 in early trade, while the Topix index was up 0.50 per cent or 7.84 points at 1,576.41.

In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.1 per cent to close the session at 27,221.35; the S&P 500 dipped 0.2 per cent to finish at 3,020.96; and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4 per cent to 8,293.33. This comes ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting where investors lie in wait of a rate cut on Wednesday.

In Europe, shares edged up amid merger announcements and a weak pound which saw London's FTSE 100 trading higher. Ireland's stock index ISEQ fell 0.9 per cent. The pan-European STOXX 600 index meanwhile rose 0.03 per cent.