Singapore stocks little changed at Friday's open; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE shares dipped slightly in early trade on Friday, after Wall Street closed mostly lower overnight.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.1 per cent or 1.44 points to 3,138.54 as at 9.01am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 59 to 52, after 29.45 million securities worth S$25.1 million changed hands.

Sembcorp Marine S51 shares were among the most actively traded securities on Friday morning, with 7.1 million shares changing hands as at 9.01am. The counter fell 1.7 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 11.6 cents.

Shares of KTL Global EB7 and Singapore Myanmar Investco Y45 were also among the top five actively traded counters by volume.

KTL Global rose 3.7 per cent or 0.4 Singapore cent to 11.3 cents, with 4.8 million shares changing hands as at 9.01am. Singapore Myanmar Investco jumped 22.5 per cent or 2.9 Singapore cents to 15.8 cents, with three million shares traded.

The trio of local banks were lower on Friday morning. DBS D05 was down 0.03 per cent or S$0.01 to S$29.87, UOB U11 slipped 0.04 per cent or S$0.01 to S$26.00, while OCBC O39 fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$12.01 as at 9.01am.

In the US, Wall Street stocks ended mostly lower on Thursday, with analysts pointing to profit-taking after major indices hit record highs amid bullish sentiment ahead of earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2 per cent to 34,987.02, the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent to 4,360.03, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.7 per cent to 14,543.13.

Broad-based losses in Europe saw shares on Thursday falling off all-time highs. The Stoxx 600 slid 1 per cent as a clutch of dismal earnings and falling bond yields dampened sentiment. Economically sensitive stocks like banks, automakers, and travel were down between 0.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent, as investors grew wary of rising Covid-19 cases across the continent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, with investors cautious amid rising virus infections just days before the start of the Olympic Games. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 per cent or 317.39 points at 27,961.70 in early trade, while the broader Topix index lost 0.7 per cent or 12.86 points to 1,926.75.