Singapore stocks open lower after mixed Wall Street session; STI down 0.8%

SINGAPORE shares opened weaker on Wednesday after a mixed session on Wall Street as investors take profit.

Figures from Enterprise Singapore on Wednesday also showed that the Republic's non-oil domestic exports added 12.8 per cent on the year, continuing an upward trajectory in January, on the back of growth in non-electronics and electronics shipments.

On the Singapore bourse, the Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.8 per cent or 23.48 points to 2,911.86 as at 9.05am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 97 to 65, after 136.5 million securities worth S$102.9 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Thomson Medical, which slipped 2.2 per cent or 0.2 Singapore cent to 8.8 cents, with 10.1 million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities include Jiutian Chemical, which gained 0.9 per cent or 0.1 Singapore cent to 10.9 cents, with 7.7 million shares traded, and Genting Singapore, which lost 1.2 per cent or one Singapore cent to 84.5 cents, with 6.8 million shares traded.

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Banking stocks declined in early trade. DBS was down 0.5 per cent or S$0.14 to S$25.85, UOB dropped 1.3 per cent or S$0.31 to S$23.71, while OCBC fell 1.3 per cent or S$0.14 to S$10.50.

Other active index counters include the Singapore Exchange, down 0.7 per cent or S$0.07 to S$9.95, and Singtel, which dipped 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.41.

In the US, stocks were mixed at the end of Tuesday's session as investors assessed the prospects for more stimulus from Washington and the odds of a market pullback.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.2 per cent higher at 31,522.75, the broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.1 per cent to 3,932.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent to 14,047.50.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 index was down 0.5 per cent at 30,309.05 in early trade, while the Topix index dipped 0.1 per cent to 1,963.20.