Singapore shares open lower on Wednesday; STI down 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks began Wednesday (Oct 2) trading in negative territory, mirroring overnight losses in global markets.

As at 9.01 am, the Straits Times Index (STI) dropped 0.1 per cent or 4.13 points to 3,576.83. Across the broader market, gainers equalled losers at 62 after 51.1 million securities worth S$62.3 million changed hands.

Oil exploration and production company Rex International was the most actively traded counter by volume. It was up 6 per cent or S$0.006 at S$0.106 with 4.4 million securities changing hands.

Other actively traded counters included offshore vessels owner and operator Pacific Radiance, which rose 2 per cent or S$0.001 to S$0.052 and upstream oil and gas company RH Petrogas which increased 5.4 per cent or S$0.008 to S$0.157.

Banking stocks were trading mixed at the open. UOB fell 0.2 per cent or S$0.05 to S$32.02, while DBS climbed 0.2 per cent or S$0.09 to S$37.98 and OCBC grew 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$14.97.

Wall Street shares fell on Tuesday as markets weighed a major US port strike amid the escalating Middle East tensions and Iran’s missile strike against Israel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 0.4 per cent at 42,156.97, while the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.9 per cent to 5,708.75 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.5 per cent to 17,910.36.

European equities closed lower as investors exited riskier assets in light of geopolitical fears of an Iranian attack on Israel. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.4 per cent lower at 520.88, retreating after climbing as high as 0.5 per cent earlier in the day.