Singapore shares fall at open after US rout; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Wednesday following sharp losses on Wall Street overnight as large tech shares suffered another beating.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (TSI) headed down 0.7 per cent or 16.99 points to 2,487.77 as at 9.03am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 132 to 31, after 72.8 million securities worth S99.6 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Sembcorp Marine, which fell 9.3 per cent or 1.8 Singapore cents to 17.5 cents with 12.9 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included Thai Beverage Public Company, which was down 0.8 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 59.5 cents with 6.9 million shares traded, as well as Sembcorp Industries, which tumbled 41.9 per cent or S$0.80 to S$1.11 as the company's shares begin trading excluding their entitlements on Wednesday.

Among technology stocks most actively traded by value, AEM Holdings was down 1.9 per cent or S$0.07 to S$3.69, while Venture Corporation dropped 0.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$18.70 as at 9.03am.

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Banking stocks were in the red in early morning trade. DBS was down 0.8 per cent or S$0.16 to S$20.49, UOB shed 0.9 per cent or S$0.17 to S$19.28, while OCBC declined 0.8 per cent or S$0.07 to S$8.53.

Other active index counters included Singtel, which was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.22, as well as Singapore Exchange, which dropped 0.9 per cent or S$0.08 to S$8.47.

In the US, Wall Street stocks finished sharply lower on Tuesday, with large tech shares taking another hit in a broadening selloff that also affected energy and financial companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.3 per cent to close at 27,500.89, the S&P 500 shed 2.8 per cent to 3,331.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 4.1 per cent to 10,847.69.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday following sharp falls in US stocks hit by renewed Brexit tension and a lacklustre economic outlook. The Nikkei 225 index was down 1.2 per cent to 22,989.86 in early trade, while the Topix index dropped 1.3 per cent to 1,600.11.