Singapore shares open lower on Tuesday; STI down 0.2% to 3,123.73

SINGAPORE shares inched lower on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index losing 0.2 per cent, or 4.72 points to 3,123.73 as at 9.01am. 

This came despite Wall Street stocks advancing for a third straight session overnight, amid a global rally and expectation of further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. The broad-based S&P 500 finished 1.2 per cent higher, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.4 per cent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1 per cent. 

On the Singapore bourse, advancers outnumbered decliners 51 to 45, after about 28.8 million shares worth S$45.9 million changed hands. 

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Rex International gained 3.9 per cent, or 0.3 Singapore cent to 8.1 cents, with 4.9 million shares traded, while YZJ Shipbuilding lost about 1 per cent, or one cent to S$1, with 4.8 million shares traded. 

Financials were mixed in the early morning trade - DBS gained 0.2 per cent, or five Singapore cents to S$24.80, UOB lost 0.4 per cent, or 11 cents to S$25.04, and OCBC slipped 0.2 per cent, or two cents to S$10.69. 

Other active stocks included Wilmar International which dropped 1.8 per cent, or seven cents to S$3.75 on a cum-dividend basis, and SPH which slipped 0.5 per cent, or one cent to S$2.07. 

Elsewhere, Asian equities mostly posted modest gains by the opening bell on Tuesday. Japan's Topix rose 0.4 per cent as at 8.10am, Australia stocks gained 0.5 per cent, and South Korea's Kospi added 0.2 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures meanwhile fell 0.1 per cent, data from Bloomberg shows.