Singapore shares fall at Wednesday’s open; STI down 0.7%

SINGAPORE stocks opened weaker on Wednesday (Apr 3) following overnight losses on Wall Street, as Tesla and healthcare stocks weighed on the indexes.

The Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.7 per cent or 23.52 points to 3,224.2 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers 81 to 32 after 61.3 million securities worth S$78.7 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was Singtel : Z74 0%, which lost 2.8 per cent or S$0.07 to S$2.47 with 11.6 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included Seatrium : S51 0%, which held steady at S$0.084 with 7.9 million shares transacted, and Beng Kuang Marine : BEZ 0%, which lost 1.7 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.117 with 5.6 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks fell in early morning trade. DBS : D05 0% was down 0.6 per cent or S$0.23 at S$35.97, UOB : U11 0% fell 0.7 per cent or S$0.21 to S$29.45, while OCBC : O39 0% shed 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$13.62.

US stocks fell on Tuesday. Tesla’s stock finished 4.9 per cent lower and was one of the biggest drags on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Healthcare shares were also among the poor performers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1 per cent to 39,170.24. The S&P 500 closed 0.7 per cent lower at 5,205.81, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 1 per cent to 16,240.45.

In Europe, stocks closed lower as well on a weak showing from healthcare counters. The continent-wide Stoxx 600 closed 0.8 per cent lower at 508.57 on Tuesday, slipping to a one-week low.