Singapore stocks fall at Tuesday's open, tracking Wall Street decline; STI down 0.2%

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Tuesday, following Wall Street's negative lead overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.2 per cent or 6.17 points to 3,203.55 as at 9.01am. Decliners outnumbered advancers 64 to 47, after 40 million securities worth S$57.5 million changed hands.

Among the top traded securities by volume were AusGroup, with 4.9 million shares worth S$140,000 changing hands, and Oceanus, which had 2.4 million of its shares worth S$90,000 traded.

Among the index counters, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the top gainer, rising 2.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$1.40 as at 9.04am. Singapore Airlines fell 1.5 per cent or S$0.08 to S$5.15, making it the top loser.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. As at 9.04am, DBS edged up 0.1 per cent or S$0.04 to S$29.06, OCBC fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$11.93, while UOB slipped 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$26.18.

Over on Wall Street, stocks retreated from record levels on Monday as a heavy week of earnings got underway with results from Coca-Cola ahead of reports from Netflix, American Airlines and others. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 per cent to end at 4,163.28, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1 per cent to 13,914.77, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4 per cent to 34,077.63.

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European stocks pulled back slightly from record highs on Monday, as a weaker open on Wall Street and rallying currencies offset optimism about a solid start to the earnings season. After posting its seventh straight week of gains on Friday, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index dipped 0.1 per cent or 0.31 point to 442.18 on Monday, with the auto and parts sector leading the losses.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday, weighed down by falls on Wall Street and a stronger yen against the dollar. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.4 per cent or 412.82 points at 29,272.55 in early trade, while the broader Topix index declined 1.2 per cent or 23.67 points to 1,932.89.