Singapore stocks: STI resumes Friday afternoon down 0.88% on day

SINGAPORE stocks resumed trading on Friday afternoon in negative territory, with the Straits Times Index down 0.88 per cent or 28.79 points to 3,256.93 on the day as at 1.06pm.

Decliners outnumbered advancers 191 to 123, after about 869.8 million securities worth S$612.2 million exchanged hands.

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Rex International was up 10 per cent, or 1.7 Singapore cents to S$0.187, with 100.2 million shares traded. Golden Agri-Resources fell 6.5 per cent or 1.5 cent to S$0.215, with 64.9 million shares traded. Y Ventures rose 26.7 per cent or 2.8 cents to S$0.133 with 41.5 million shares traded.

Banking stocks also faltered by the afternoon trade, DBS fell 0.5 per cent or 14 Singapore cents to S$26.52, UOB lost 0.5 per cent or 14 Singapore cents to S$26.83, and OCBC slipped 0.4 per cent, or four cents to S$11.09.

Other active securities included Ascendas Reit, which fell 5.8 per cent or 18 Singapore cents to S$2.94 on an ex-dividend and ex-rights basis; and Mapletree Commercial Trust, which dropped 3.4 per cent or eight Singapore cents to S$2.31.

Other Asian markets were also trading in negative territory, with MSCI's gauge of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.2 per cent at 536.43. Tokyo's Nikkei, which earlier in the day climbed to a 13-month high, lost some gains to be last up 0.05 per cent. Chinese shares were firm with the blue-chip index up 0.4 per cent.

Australian shares were little changed in early Friday trade, with the S&P/ASX 200 index falling 1.8 points to 6,725.1 by 0048 GMT. In New Zealand, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.5 per cent or 59.06 points to 10,854.12.