Singapore shares open lower on Wednesday; STI slips 0.14%

SINGAPORE shares dipped at the opening bell on Wednesday following a choppy trade session in the US which saw stocks end mostly lower.

Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 4.47 points or 0.14 per cent to 3,266.07 as at 9.06am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 60 to 44, after 63.4 million securities worth S$76.3 million changed hands.

Thai Beverage was the most actively traded counter by volume in the morning, rising S$0.005 or 0.6 per cent to S$0.865 after 8.8 million shares traded. Singtel also saw robust volumes with 7.6 million shares changing hands, while its share price was flat at S$3.25.

Meanwhile, Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust was up S$0.02 or 1.7 per cent to S$1.21 after 5 million shares changed hands.

It was a mixed bag among local banks. DBS gained S$0.03 or 0.1 per cent to S$26.28, UOB slipped S$0.04 or 0.2 per cent to S$26.90 while OCBC Bank lost S$0.06 or 0.5 per cent to S$11.04 as at 9.06am.

Wall Street stocks had finished a choppy session mostly lower Tuesday as earnings season opened with mixed banking results ahead of a US-China trade agreement.

Stocks were also bruised by an early afternoon Bloomberg News report that said the US could maintain tariffs on more than US$300 billion in Chinese goods past November 2020.

While most major country indices in Europe traded flat to lower, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed up 0.3 per cent after two sessions of losses. It was helped by a record high for Louis Vuitton owner LVMH and a rally in homebuilder Taylor Wimpey.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower as the benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.42 per cent or 102.05 points to 23,923.12 while the broader Topix index was down 0.39 per cent or 6.72 points at 1,733.81.