Singapore shares open lower on Wednesday; STI down 0.3% to 3,127.37

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Wednesday tracking Wall Street losses overnight, with the Straits Times Index losing 0.3 per cent, or 8.58 points to 3,127.37 as at 9.01am.

This comes after US equities slipped for the first time in four days on Tuesday, amid lingering unease over global growth and the protracted trade war between the world's two largest economies. Wall Street stocks were in the red most of Tuesday, but slid further after US President Donald Trump said he was not ready to reach a trade deal with China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7 per cent, the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 per cent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.7 per cent.

On the Singapore bourse, gainers and losers were evenly matched at 44 each, after about 24.6 million shares worth S$42.7 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Synagie was up 7.5 per cent, or 1.2 Singapore cents to 17.2 cents, with 3.9 million shares traded, while YZJ Shipbuilding lost 3.6 per cent, or 3.5 cents to 93.5 cents, with 2.8 million shares traded. On Wednesday morning before the market opened, Catalist-listed e-commerce solutions provider Synagie announced that it will link up with online store giant Lazada to provide brand store management services on its platform across South-east Asia.

Meanwhile, banking stocks continued to trade mixed shortly after the opening bell - DBS slipped 0.1 per cent, or two Singapore cents to S$24.69; OCBC added 0.1 per cent, or one cent to S$10.70; and UOB lost 0.3 per cent, or seven cents to S$24.92.

Other active stocks included ST Engineering which dropped 2.4 per cent, or 10 cents to S$4.02 on an ex-dividend basis; Wilmar International which slipped 1.3 per cent, or five cents to S$3.74 on an ex-dividend basis; and Keppel Reit which lost 0.8 per cent, or one cent to S$1.23.