Singapore shares open lower on Tuesday; STI down 0.25%

SINGAPORE shares retreated at the opening bell on Tuesday after US stocks finished lower overnight. The Straits Times Index lost 8.02 points or 0.25 per cent to 3,171.80 as at 9.05am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 55 to 47, after 56.4 million securities worth S$110.8 million changed hands.

Golden-Agri Resources was the most actively traded security, unchanged at S$0.225 after 6.6 million shares were traded. Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust and Genting Singapore were some of the other actives.

Among index securities, Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust traded up S$0.02 or 0.7 per cent to S$3.05.

In financials, all three local banks lost ground with DBS declining S$0.05 or 0.2 per cent to S$24.96, OCBC shares losing S$0.02 or 0.2 per cent to S$10.62 and UOB down S$0.15 or 0.6 per cent to S$25.31.

US markets closed lower on Monday ahead of market-moving events this week that include a British election and a US Federal Reserve decision.

Investors are also waiting to see if the US will go ahead with a plan to enact tariffs on Chinese goods on Dec 15.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.4 per cent at 27,909.60, snapping a three-day winning streak.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.3 per cent to 3,135.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4 per cent at 8,621.83.