Singapore stocks fall at Friday's open; STI down 0.04%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday (Jan 21) after US shares closed in red on Thursday.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 0.04 per cent or 1.34 points to 3,293.48 as at 9.04 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 57 to 49 after 78.9 million securities worth S$63.8 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Disa 532 . Shares of the company were up 12.5 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.009 with 40.6 million shares trading hands.

Other heavily traded securities include mainboard-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and ComfortDelGro.

Yangzijiang BS6 traded down 1.5 per cent or S$0.02 to S$1.32, following an announcement of its upcoming venture capital investment fund focused on sectors such as healthcare, technology and the green economy. On the other hand, ComfortDelGro C52 climbed up 0.7 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.38 on Friday morning.

Rex International 5WH was also among the most actively traded securities with shares down 1.5 per cent or S$0.005 to S$0.325 as at 9.04 am.

The trio of local banks were mixed on Friday morning. UOB was up 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$30.33, while shares of both DBS and OCBC tumbled. DBS was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.22 to S$35.77, while OCBC dropped 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$12.26.

Over on Wall Street, US shares ended with a steep drop on Thursday and a rally in US stocks evaporated late in the session as investors considered whether equities were bargains after a sell-off.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 per cent or 313.26 points to 34,715.39, the S&P 500 lost 1.1 per cent or 50.03 points to 4,482.73 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.3 per cent or 186.24 points to 14,154.02.

Meanwhile, European shares ended higher on Thursday with travel stocks leading gains. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.5 per cent, overcoming early losses and extending a recovery into a second consecutive session.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo shares opened sharply lower on Friday after US stocks were back in red. The benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 2 per cent or 554.31 points to 27,218.62 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 1.7 per cent or 31.92 points to 1,906.61.