Singapore shares skid sharply by 2.7%

SHARE prices in the Singapore bourse skidded with the key Straits Times Index tumbling 2.69 per cent following the overnight rout in US stocks that saw an extreme sell-off across Asian equity markets.

The STI closed at 3,047.39, down 84.09 points, on Thursday to log its sixth straight day of losses. Some of its regional peers, chiefly China, Japan and South Korea suffered steeper losses of 4-5 per cent.

Turnover in the local bourse stood at 2.1 billion shares worth S$1.67 billion versus Wednesday's 1.58 billion worth S$1.12 billion with 429 counters in the red and merely 72 counters closing higher.

Overnight, US stocks had tumbled the most since February this year with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index falling 3.29 per cent and 4.08 per cent respectively. The sharp sell-down owing to worries over the US-China trade spat and rising rates in the US as the mid-term election looms led many analysts to ponder whether this was the beginning of a bear market for US equities.

"We've seen this before," reminded DBS Research. "Beyond the current bout of volatility, we expect fundamentals (especially macro and corporate earnings growth) to return and stabilise the markets (in particular, the US market). The latest sell-down is no different from the one in Q1 2018 - where investors over-reacted to the Fed's tightening concerns, before calm and rationality took over," it added.

Singapore's bellwether banking stocks DBS, OCBC and UOB fell between 2.5 and 2.6 per cent while the Jardine counters were badly hit with Jardine Matheson Holdings, Jardine Strategic Holdings and Jardine Cycle & Carriage losing 3.7, 4.4 and 2.8  per cent respectively.