Singapore shares fall at Monday's open tracking Wall Street retreat; STI down 0.3%

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Monday following losses on Wall Street as US President-elect Joe Biden's massive stimulus plan failed to shake downbeat sentiment on Friday.

In Singapore, key export figures capped the year with a surprise increase in December on the back of non-electronics growth, breaking a two-month losing streak.

The Republic's non-oil domestic exports added 6.8 per cent year on year, improving from the decline of 5 per cent seen in the month before, according to figures from trade agency Enterprise Singapore on Monday.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.3 per cent or 8.69 points to 2,996.18 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 85 to 72, after 178.6 million securities worth S$65.7 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Jiutian Chemical, which rose 3 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent to 10.3 cents, with 33.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine, which fell 0.6 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 16.8 cents, with 7.5 million shares traded, as well as Golden Agri-Resources, which dropped 1.5 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent to 19.6 cents, with four million shares traded.

Banking stocks declined in early morning trade. DBS was down 1.3 per cent or S$0.35 at S$26.50, UOB lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.11 to S$23.86, while OCBC dropped 0.5 per cent or S$0.05 to S$10.62.

Other active index counters included Wilmar International which gained 1.2 per cent or S$0.06 to S$5.28 and Singapore Airlines, which declined 1.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$4.32.

In the US, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.6 per cent at 30,814.26, while the S&P 500 lost 0.7 per cent to finish at 3,768.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 12,998.50 after losing 0.9 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday on profit-taking following falls on Wall Street as Mr Biden's US$1.9 trillion stimulus plan had largely been priced in. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 per cent at 28,217.10 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.6 per cent to 1,844.95.