Singapore shares fall at Thursday's open tracking Wall St losses; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Thursday following overnight losses on Wall Street and Europe as firms reported lacklustre earnings, along with weak US economic data.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.7 per cent or 17.7 points to 2,587.86 as at 9.03am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 117 to 36, after 39 million securities worth S$55.6 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Thomson Medical, which rose 1.7 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 5.9 cents with 4.3 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities included ESR-Reit, which fell 4.5 per cent or 1.5 Singapore cents to 32 cents with four million shares traded, and TEE International, which was flat at 2.2 Singapore cents with 1.7 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks were in the red in early morning trade. DBS fell 1.6 per cent or S$0.32 to S$19.18, UOB was down 1.8 per cent or S$0.36 to S$19.92 on a cum-dividend basis, while OCBC slid 1.4 per cent or S$0.12 to S$8.78 on a cum-dividend basis.

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Other active index counters included Singtel, which was flat at S$2.80, and the Singapore Exchange, which edged up 0.4 per cent or S$0.04 to S$9.75.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened weaker on Thursday following declines on Wall Street after a build-up of weak economic data and earnings reports pointed to a severe slowdown in the US. The Nikkei 225 index fell 1.5 per cent to 19,263.96 in early trade, while the Topix index lost 1.4 per cent to 1,414.24.

In the US, stocks tumbled on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1.9 per cent to 23,504.35. The S&P 500 shed 2.2 per cent to 2,783.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.4 per cent to 8,393.18.

European shares closed in the red on Wednesday, ending a five-day rally after the first batch of earnings reports underlined business damage from the novel coronavirus pandemic. The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 3.3 per cent.