Singapore shares open lower as Wall Street loss streak continues; STI down 0.4% 

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Wednesday (Aug 31) as global markets continue to fall amid interest rate hike fears.

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.4 per cent or 11.3 points to 3228.03 as at 9 am. Losers outweighed gainers 93 to 35 after 99.86 million securities worth S$68.49 million shares changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine was the most actively traded counter in the morning with 9 million shares transacted. The counter was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.117. Among index counters, ThaiBev traded lower 0.8 per cent or S$0.05 at S$0.635 after 1.9 million shares were traded.

The trio of local banks traded mixed at Wednesday’s open. DBS was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.15 to S$32.73, UOB lost 0.2 per cent or S$0.04 to S$27.28,  OCBC was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.05 to S$12.15.   

Over in the US, Wall Street stocks ended with losses again on Tuesday, part of a downward trend set in motion by Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, who last week warned there would be no respite from interest rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.0 per cent to finish the day at 31,790.87 . The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 1.1 per cent to close at 3,986.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 1.1 per cent to 11,883.14.

European shares ended lower on Tuesday, failing to shrug off fears of higher interest rates amid a burgeoning energy crisis and looming recession.

After rising as much as 1 per cent, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index erased all gains by the end of the session to fall 0.7 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday in nervous trade, extending US losses as investors remained wary about the pace of rate hikes planned by the US Federal Reserve to fight inflation.

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The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1 per cent, or 271.17 points, at 27,924.41 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.8 per cent, or 16.52 points, to 1,951.86.