Singapore stocks enter Friday afternoon trading on lower ground; STI at 3,417.8, down 2.1% on the day

SINGAPORE shares resumed trading on Friday afternoon in negative territory with the Straits Times Index at 3,417.8, down 2.1 per cent or 73.57 points on the day as at 1pm.

Against the benchmark's level of 3,419.26 heading into the midday break, the index was down by 1.46 points or 0.04 per cent.

Losers outnumbered gainers 331 to 58, after 923.3 million shares worth S$884.3 million changed hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Genting Singapore was down 2.7 per cent, or three Singapore cents to S$1.09 with 31.4 million shares traded; and Singtel was down 1.4 per cent, or five Singapore cents to S$3.40 with 30.7 million shares traded.

Active index stocks included OCBC Bank which was down 3.3 per cent to S$12.82; and UOB which was down 2.8 per cent to S$27.37.

Friday's stock slump comes as Asian stocks tracked sharp falls in US and European stocks following US President Donald Trump's decision to slap tariffs on China.

This sparked concerns of a potential trade war that could hurt global growth, and sent the yen climbing to its strongest showing in over a year. The greenback fell below 105 yen, for the first time since Mr Trump was elected president in November 2016.