Singapore shares on Tuesday open higher after Monday's rout; STI up 0.27% to 3,299.47

SINGAPORE stocks bounced back on Tuesday following a global stocks rout on Monday. After falling 3 per cent on Monday, the Straits Times Index (STI) advanced 8.85 points, or 0.27 per cent to 3,299.47 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 76 to 36, after about 37.8 million shares worth about S$89.5 million changed hands.

The most actively traded counter was NetLink NBN Trust, which traded down 0.61 per cent, or S$0.005, at S$0.82, with about four million shares traded.

Other active securities included Suntec Reit, which saw about 2.6 million units trade unchanged at S$1.80, and ComfortDelGro, which rose 0.39 per cent, or one Singapore cent to S$2.58.

Active index stocks included UOB, which traded up 0.08 per cent, or two Singapore cents, at S$25.87, and DBS, which traded up 0.79 per cent, or S$0.21, at S$26.74.

Carmen Lee, head of research at OCBC Investment Research, said in a market report on Tuesday morning that the research unit had recently downgraded DBS and UOB to "hold" largely on valuation grounds.

"With Monday's correction, share prices of both banks have come off about 4.3-4.5 per cent from last Friday's closing prices. At current prices, both stocks have already corrected sharply and are now below our recommended re-entry price levels as mentioned in the reports of both banks."

US and Europe stocks had fallen in Monday trading sessions in the wake of US President Donald Trump's pledge to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.

However, Wall Street ended higher than its session lows as some investors saw Mr Trump's comments as a bargaining tactic and expressed confidence in an eventual trade agreement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.47 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 26,438.48, the S&P 500 lost 13.17 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 2,932.47 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 40.71 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 8,123.29.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.28-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and four new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 69 new highs and 33 new lows.

In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended 0.9 per cent lower, in its worst day in about a month and a half.

German shares fell 1 per cent in their worst one-day showing in six and a half weeks. The index had tumbled as much as 2.2 per cent during the session.

Stocks in Spain, Italy and France, fell from 0.8 per cent to 1.6 per cent, while equity markets in Britain were closed for a bank holiday.