Singapore stocks fall at Thursday's open; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Thursday (Jan 27) as US stocks ended Wednesday mostly lower, following the possibility of a March interest rate hike.

The Straits Times Index (STI) shed 0.4 per cent or 12.91 points to 3,258.66 as at 9.01 am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 77 to 46 after 34.8 million securities worth S$65.8 million changed hands.

Rex International 5WH was the most actively traded counter on Thursday morning with 4.9 million shares changing hands, after the oil exploration and production company announced on Wednesday that it has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading to transfer its listing from the Catalist board to the mainboard. The counter rose 3.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.33.

DiSa's 532 shares movement was close behind as the second most active counter by volume, with 4.7 million shares changing hands as it rose 14.3 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.008.

Index counter Singtel Z74 was heavily traded on Thursday morning. Shares of the telco dipped 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.46.

Units of CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust C38U were among the top 5 most actively traded counters by volume. Its units were up 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 at S$1.99.

The trio of local banks was a sea of red on Thursday morning. DBS D05 was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.14 at S$35.17, UOB U11 fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.15 to S$29.87, while OCBC O39 slipped 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$12.32 as at 9.01 am.

In the US, Wall Street ended mostly lower as the US Federal Reserve signalled that an interest rate increase was likely to occur in March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 per cent to 34,168.09. The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent to end at 4,349.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index closed essentially flat at 13,542.12.

Meanwhile, European shares extended gains to record its best session since early December on Wednesday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 1.7 per cent to 467.31, with all sectors in positive territory.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday following the mixed close on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.4 per cent or 105.37 points at 27,116.70 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.5 per cent or 9.68 points to 1,901.53.