Singapore shares open lower on Wednesday following US tech selloff; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE shares opened 0.7 per cent lower on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index down 22.48 points to 3,416.87 as at 9.02am as Asian stocks declined following a selloff in technology stocks on Wall Street on Tuesday.

The selloff followed a report that the Trump administration is considering a crackdown on Chinese investment in technologies the US considers sensitive.

On the Singapore Exchange, about 60 million shares worth S$92 million in total changed hands as losers outnumbered gainers 97 to 33.

The most actively traded stock was HLH Group, which rose S$0.002 to S$0.007 with 44.5 million shares changing hands.

The second-highest traded counter was Genting Singapore which fell S$0.01 to S$1.09 with 35.3 million shares changing hands.

Active index stocks included DBS, down S$0.19 or 0.7 per cent at S$27.21; and Singtel shares trading down S$0.03 or 0.9 per cent at S$3.36.

On Wall Street, S&P 500 slumped 1.7 per cent as at the close of trading in New York. The Nasdaq 100 Index fell 3.3 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.4 per cent.

In regional markets, Japan's Topix index slid 2.1 per cent as at 9.23am in Tokyo. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.6 per cent, while South Korea's Kospi index fell 1 per cent.