Singapore stocks: STI resumes Monday afternoon down 1% on day

SINGAPORE equities resumed trading on Monday afternoon in negative territory, with the Straits Times Index (STI) slipping 33 points or 1 per cent to 3,148.03 as at 1.04pm.

Investor sentiment in the region continues to be bogged down by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak with fears mounting over the weekend due to the spike in cases in Japan and South Korea.

Shortly after the afternoon session began, volume traded on the Singapore bourse clocked in at 1.06 billion securities with a total turnover of S$779.4 million. Both volume and turnover are on track to beat their respective 2019 intraday averages.

Across the market, decliners trumped advancers 330 to 100. The bluechip index had 28 of the 30 counters trading in the red.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was the STI's most active counter, dipping S$0.04 or 3.9 per cent to S$1 on 27 million shares changing hands. China's largest non-state shipbuilder is due to report earnings for Q4 FY2019 on Feb 27 after market close.

In line with the risk-off session, the local banks were lower. DBS shares dipped S$0.15 or 0.6 per cent to S$24.93, OCBC Bank fell S$0.11 or 1 per cent to S$10.91 and United Overseas Bank was trading at S$25.31, down S$0.37 or 1.4 per cent as at 1.04pm on Monday.

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ST Engineering, one of the STI's more defensive listings, dipped S$0.01 or 0.2 per cent to S$4.23 after posting a 36.2 per cent rise in Q4 net profit to S$169.5 million before Monday's market open.

Among the local market's medical plays, Singapore Medical Group edged down S$0.01 or 2.9 per cent to S$0.33 after posting a 25.1 per cent jump in fourth quarter net profit to S$3.7 million from S$2.9 million for the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, Raffles Medical was up S$0.01 or 1 per cent to S$1.02 even though it posted a 15.2 per cent fall in net profit to S$60.3 million for the full year ended Dec 31, 2019.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific, equity benchmarks in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan were lower.