Singapore shares open lower on Wednesday, STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares opened 0.5 per cent lower on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index down 17.64 points to 3,531.1 as at 9.02am after Wall Street fell for a second straight session and the rise in global bond yields weighed on equity markets all over.

About 145 million shares worth S$334 million in total changed hands as losers outnumbered gainers 130 to 37.

The most actively traded stock was ISR Capital, which rose S$0.001 to S$0.007 with 71.0 million shares changing hands.

Other actives included Midas and Allied Tech.

Active index stocks included Keppel Corporation, up S$0.23 or 2.67 per cent at S$8.86; and DBS shares trading up S$0.01 or 0.04 per cent at S$26.59.

On Tuesday, the Dow posted the largest decline since May, as healthcare shares sank on worries about Amazon's push into the sector, AFP said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4 per cent to 26,076.89, the biggest drop in percentage terms in more than eight months.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent to 2,822.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.9 per cent to 7,402.48.

Shares in Japan and Australia were trading lower in early Wednesday trading, although stocks in South Korea bucked the trend, Bloomberg said.

Japan's Topix index sank 0.4 per cent as at 9.25am in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index slid 0.3 per cent and South Korea's Kospi index rose 0.2 per cent.