Singapore stocks fall at Wednesday's open; STI down 0.9%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Wednesday, tracking the falls on Wall Street on the previous day's close.

The Straits Times Index (STI) dipped 0.9 per cent or 28.87 points to 3,163.30 as at 9.02am.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 100 to 43 after 64.8 million securities worth S$76.7 million changed hands at 9.02am.

Investment holding company Alset International shares were the most actively traded securities by volume, with 16.1 million shares being traded at 9.05am. The counter rose 8.1 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 6.7 cents.

Sembcorp Marine was also actively traded on the bourse at 9.06am, with 13.1 million securities changing hands. The counter fell 2.4 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 20 cents.

The trio of local banks were trading lower on Wednesday morning. DBS was down 1.7 per cent or S$0.49 to S$28.53. On Tuesday, the bank said it will acquire a 13 per cent stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank for 5.29 billion yuan (S$1.08 billion), in a move that will make it the largest shareholder of the Chinese bank.

UOB fell 1 per cent or S$0.27 to S$26 and OCBC slid 1.1 per cent or S$0.13 to S$11.79 as at 9.05am.

Over on Wall Street, markets closed lower for a second straight session on Tuesday despite a mostly strong batch of earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8 per cent to 33,821.30. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.7 per cent to 4,134.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.9 per cent to 13,786.27.

European shares lost nearly 2 per cent on Tuesday, mirroring the fall over on Wall Street.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 1.9 per cent in its biggest one-day decline this year, accelerating losses after a lower opening on Wall Street.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday as the falls on Wall Street from the previous day weighed on markets.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.6 per cent or 455.19 points at 28,645.19 in early trade, while the broader Topix index fell 1.5 per cent or 28.23 points to 1,898.02.