Singapore shares fall at Friday’s open, tracking global declines; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (Jun 17) morning, tracking losses across global and regional markets. 

The Straits Times Index (STI) lost 0.5 per cent or 15.26 points to 3,082.17 as at 9.01 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 112 to 27 after 70.4 million securities worth S$75.9 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine was the top traded counter by volume, shedding S$0.001 or 0.9 per cent to S$0.109 with some 12.9 million shares traded in the morning.

Other heavily traded securities include Genting Singapore , which lost 1.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.73 with 5.4 million shares traded, as well as ThaiBev , which slipped 0.8 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.645 with 4.1 million shares traded.

Among index counters, ComfortDelGro also saw brisk trading with 1.2 million shares changing hands at the open. It lost S$0.01 or 0.7 per cent to S$1.37.

Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.19 at S$29.71, UOB fell 0.6 per cent or S$0.16 to S$26.82, while OCBC gained 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to reach S$11.51.

In the US, stocks dropped sharply Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve made an aggressive move to bring down inflation and instil confidence in the markets and other central banks followed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 741.5 points, ending down 2.4 per cent at 29,927.07 - its first close below 30,000 since January 2021. 

The broad-based S&P 500, which entered a “bear market” earlier this week following the latest red-hot US inflation data, fell 3.3 per cent to 3,666.78 at the closing bell. Meanwhile, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 4.1 per cent to 10,646.10.

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Similarly, European equity markets tumbled on Thursday as a trio of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, Swiss National Bank and Bank of England stoked fears of a global recession.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the day down 2.3 per cent to 402.88 and is now more than 18 per cent from its January all-time high.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened sharply lower on Friday following the rout on Wall Street and rate hikes from the 3 central banks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 2.6 per cent or 687.44 points at 25,743.76 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 2.4 per cent or 45.50 points to 1,822.31.