Singapore stocks open lower in tandem with Wall Street; STI down 0.4%

SINGAPORE stocks fell in early trade on Friday after Wall Street stocks ended lower, following reports that the White House will propose a steep increase in capital gain taxes on wealthy individuals.

The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.4 per cent or 11.69 points to 3,176.09 as at 9.01am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 74 to 48 after 58.3 million securities worth S$62.7 million changed hands.

Anchor Resources' shares were the most actively traded on Friday morning, with 9.1 million shares changing hands as at 9.01am. The counter was trading flat at S$0.03.

Jasper Investments also saw brisk trading with 4.1 million shares switching hands. Its counter rose 25 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to half a cent.

The trio of local banks were mixed in early trade. DBS was down 0.8 per cent or S$0.24 to S$28.73, UOB gained 0.1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$26.18, while OCBC slipped 0.3 per cent or S$0.04 to S$11.93 as at 9.01am.

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In the US, Wall Street stocks finished solidly lower on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 per cent to 33,815.90, the S&P 500 shed 0.9 per cent to finish at 4,134.98 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9 per cent to end at 13,818.41.

European shares moved towards record highs on Thursday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 extended gains for a second day, rising 0.7 per cent to 439.63.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 1.1 per cent to 28,861.74, while the broader Topix index was down 0.7 per cent to 1,980.95.