Singapore shares open lower on Tuesday; STI down 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares began Tuesday (Oct 22) trading in negative territory, extending overnight losses in markets abroad.

As at 9.03 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) was down 0.5 per cent or 17.96 points at 3,596.62. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 85 to 47 after 57 million securities worth S$84.2 million changed hands.

Specialty chemical manufacturer Matex International was the most actively traded counter by volume. It rose 5.3 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.02 with six million securities changing hands.

Other actively traded counters included Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust which fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.43 and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust which dropped 1 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.08.

Banking stocks were trading down at open. DBS declined 0.3 per cent or S$0.11 to S$39.05, OCBC slipped 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$15.27 and UOB was down 1.2 per cent or S$0.40 at S$32.08.

Wall Street stocks ended mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 retreating from Monday’s highs as treasury bond yields climbed during the first session of a heavy week of earnings reports.

The tech-rich Nasdaq inched up 0.3 per cent to 18,540.01, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.8 per cent to 42,931.6 and the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 5,853.98.

European shares ended Monday lower ahead of corporate earnings reports. The continent-wide Stoxx 600 index fell 0.6 per cent to 521.52, with the real estate sector leading the nearly 2 per cent drop and energy stocks leading gains as oil prices stabilised.