Singapore shares fall at Thursday's open tracking US retreat: STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Thursday following overnight losses on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve sent signals it was moving closer to tightening monetary policy while downplaying recent signs of inflation.

Data from Enterprise Singapore on Thursday also showed that the Republic's key exports in May grew 8.8 per cent year on year but saw a slight sequential fall. Meanwhile, May's non-oil domestic exports grew 8.8 per cent on the year as both electronic and non-electronic exports grew.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.4 per cent or 13.06 points to 3,126.51 as at 9.05am. Losers outnumbered gainers 102 to 57 after 141.5 million securities worth S$129.6 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Rex International, which was up 5.3 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.20, with 22.4 million shares changing hands. The company resumed trading after announcing on Wednesday that its 90 per cent-owned subsidiary, Lime Petroleum, will buy 33.8 per cent of a Norway oil field for US$42.6 million.

Other heavily traded securities include OTS Holdings, which began trading on Thursday. Its counter was flat at 30.5 Singapore cents, with 12 million shares traded. Meanwhile, Sembcorp Marine was down 0.5 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 19.5 cents, with 9.6 million shares traded.

Chasen was up 4.7 per cent or 0.3 Singapore cent to 6.7 cents, with 5.8 million shares traded. The group on Wednesday said it bagged new projects in specialist relocation services and third-party logistics worth S$12.4 million in total.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS inched up 0.03 per cent or S$0.01 to S$29.93, UOB lost 0.7 per cent or S$0.18 to S$25.87, while OCBC declined 1.1 per cent or S$0.13 to S$12.07.

Other active index counters included Wilmar International, which was down 1.5 per cent or S$0.07 to S$4.54, as well as Singapore Airlines, which was down 2 per cent or S$0.10 to S$4.82.

In the US, stocks hit session lows shortly after the Fed released projections showing US central bankers raised their inflation and growth forecasts and a majority now expect interest rate hikes in 2023.

However, equities recovered somewhat during Fed chair Jay Powell's press conference as he emphasised that recent price hikes are temporary.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8 per cent to 34,033.67, the S&P 500 lost 0.5 per cent to 4,223.7 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.2 per cent to 14,039.68.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.6 per cent to 29,122.98 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.2 per cent to 1,971.45.