Singapore stocks fall at Friday's open; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares pulled back at Friday's open as trading resumed after a public holiday, with investors cautious amid a rise in community cases and Covid-19 clusters in the Republic this week.

There were 24 new coronavirus cases in the community announced on Thursday, the highest daily number recorded since July 11, 2020. Of these cases, 17 are linked to the Changi Airport cluster, taking the total number of patients in the cluster to 42.

The Straits Times Index (STI) slipped 0.5 per cent or 15.09 points to 3,108.17 as at 9.03am. Losers outnumbered gainers 107 to 68, after 98.5 million securities worth S$169.3 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine, which dropped 1.1 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 18.9 cents, with 8.2 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities include Singtel, which fell 1.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.38, with 4.8 million shares traded. The telco on Friday warned it expects to report S$839 million and S$1.21 billion in net exceptional losses for the second half and financial year ended March 31, 2021. The group is due to report its H2 and FY2021 results on May 27.

Banking stocks were mixed in early trade. DBS was trading 0.2 per cent or S$0.06 higher at S$29.56, UOB was down 1.2 per cent or S$0.32 to S$25.77, while OCBC declined 0.7 per cent or S$0.08 to S$11.95.

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Other active index counters include Singapore Airlines, which was down 1.9 per cent or S$0.09 to S$4.68, and Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, which lost 0.3 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.91.

In the US, stocks rebounded after three down sessions amid trading marked by bargain hunting as well as optimism after US officials lifted an indoor mask mandate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Thursday up 1.3 per cent, the broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.2 per cent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7 per cent.

European stocks slipped on Thursday, weighed down by a fall in heavyweight miners after commodity prices tumbled, while a rapid rise in US inflation kept risk sentiment at bay. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dipped 0.1 per cent, after falling as much as 1.7 per cent earlier in the session.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday as investors took heart from the Wall Street rallies. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.6 per cent at 27,872.52 in early trade, while the broader Topix index advanced 1.3 per cent to 1,873.67.