Singapore shares open weaker as stricter curbs take effect; STI down 0.6%

SINGAPORE stocks started the week lower after Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) commenced on Sunday. This resulted in tightened restrictions on gatherings, a ban on dining-in and reduced capacity limits for events, attractions, shopping malls and libraries.

All primary, secondary, junior college and Millennia Institute students, including students from Special Education schools, will also shift to full home-based learning from Wednesday till the end of the term on May 28, Singapore's multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) on Covid-19 said on Sunday.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.6 per cent or 19.02 points to 3,036 as at 9.04am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 112 to 81, after 103.3 million securities worth S$126.1 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Jiutian Chemical, which rose 4.4 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to 9.5 cents, with 11.8 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Sembcorp Marine, which fell 1.1 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 17.7 cents, with 4.9 million shares traded, as well as ComfortDelGro, which was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.57, with four million shares traded.

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Sheng Siong was down 2.4 per cent or S$0.04 to S$1.62. The supermarket operator saw its shares surge to an intraday high of S$1.68 on Friday, up 12 per cent or S$0.18, half an hour after Singapore's MTF announced tighter restrictions on food and beverage operators.

Banking stocks fell during the early morning trade. DBS dropped 1.6 per cent or S$0.47 to S$28.82, UOB lost 1.4 per cent or S$0.36 to S$25.01, while OCBC declined by 0.5 per cent or S$0.06 to S$11.66.

Other active index counters included Singtel, which was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.30 and Singapore Airlines, which fell 1.6 per cent or S$0.07 to S$4.43.

In the US, stocks rebounded on Friday despite lacklustre economic data and disappointing retail sales. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1 per cent to close at 34,382.13, while the broad-based S&P 500 increased 1.5 per cent to 4,173.85. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 2.3 per cent to finish the week at 13,429.98.

European stocks jumped on Friday, after the Federal Reserve said there would be no imminent move to tighten monetary policy. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 1.1 per cent, with oil and gas and retail stocks leading the gains.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Monday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.7 per cent to 28,272.67 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.7 per cent to 1,897.12.