Singapore stocks: STI resumes Wednesday afternoon down 0.51% on day

SINGAPORE shares resumed trading in negative territory on Wednesday afternoon in line with the rest of Asia. This comes after US President Donald Trump's comments overnight indicated no urgency to strike a deal with China, stoking investors' fears over global trade tensions. 

The benchmark Straits Times Index lost 0.51 per cent, or 16.29 points to 3,156.79 as at 1.02pm. 

Losers outnumbered gainers 195 to 89, after 550.8 million shares worth S$757.5 million changed hands. 

Among the most heavily traded by volume, Rex International shed 5.8 per cent, or one Singapore cent to 16.4 cents, with 74.7 million shares traded, while Golden Agri-Resources was down 2.2 per cent, or 0.5 Singapore cent, to 22 cents with 29.3 million shares traded. 

Banking stocks also fell by the afternoon trade. DBS edged down 0.3 per cent, or seven cents to S$24.91, OCBC Bank slipped 0.8 per cent, or eight cents to S$10.61, while United Overseas Bank was down 0.9 per cent, or 23 cents to S$25.31. 

Other active index stocks included Wilmar International which fell 2.9 per cent, or 12 cents to S$3.99, and Mapletree Commercial Trust which shed 1.7 per cent, or four cents to S$2.32. 

Bucking the downward trend, however, was Parkway Life Reit which gained 0.6 per cent, or two cents to S$3.24. The Reit on Tuesday said it is acquiring three nursing rehabilitation facilities in Japan for a total of 3.7 billion yen (about S$46.3 million).

Meanwhile, Jardine Matheson Holdings also rose 1.6 per cent, or 84 US cents to US$54.75.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Topix fell 0.4 per cent as of the lunch break in Tokyo. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.9 per cent, and China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.2 per cent. 

South Korea's Kospi also retreated 1.1 per cent, while Australian stocks declined 1.7 per cent, data from Bloomberg shows.