Singapore shares open lower following Wall Street plunge; STI down 0.1% 

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Monday (Aug 29) as global markets took a nose dive. 

The Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.1 per cent or 39.76 points to 3209.77 as at 9 am. Losers outweighed gainers 148 to 19 after 75.36 million securities worth S$56.12 million shares changed hands.

MarcoPolo Marine was the most actively traded counter in the morning with 10.6 million shares transacted. The counter was down 5.4 per cent or S$0.002 at S$0.35. Among index counters, SingPost traded lower 1.7 per cent or S$0.01 at S$0.575 after 1.7 million shares were traded.

The trio of local banks traded lower at Monday’s open. DBS was down 1.6 per cent or S$0.52 to S$32.32, UOB lost 1.5 per cent or S$0.42 to S$27.05, OCBC dipped 1.7 per cent or S$0.21 to S$11.93.   Over in the US, Wall Street ended Friday with all 3 benchmark indices more than 3 per cent lower, as Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell’s signal that the central bank would keep hiking rates to tame inflation nixed nascent hopes for a more modest path among some investors.

The S&P 500 lost 141.46 points or 3.4 per cent to end at 4,057.66 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 497.56 points or 3.9 per cent to 12,141.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,008.38 points, or 3 per cent, to 32,283.40.

European shares tumbled on Friday, led by Germany, as investors fretted over downbeat consumer sentiment data in the continent’s biggest economy.

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The pan-European Stoxx 600 slid 1.7 per cent, closing down 2.6 per cent for the week. Germany’s DAX index ended 2.3 per cent lower, with a weekly fall of 4.2 per cent making it its worst week in more than 2 months.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Monday after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell declared his commitment to rate hikes to fight inflation.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.69 per cent, or 484.75 points, to 28,156.63, while the broader Topix index slipped 1.62 per cent, or 31.59 points, to 1,948.00.