SINGAPORE stocks started Monday (Jul 22) muted, after a choppy week in US and Europe markets ended with a global IT outage disrupting businesses worldwide.
The Straits Times Index (STI) headed down 0.02 per cent or 0.77 point to 3,446.79 as at 9.04 am. Across the broader market, gainers and losers were almost evenly matched at 64 to 62, after 75.8 million securities worth S$62.3 million changed hands.
The most active counter by volume was Oceanus, which was flat at S$0.009 with 36.3 million shares transacted.
Other heavily traded securities included Mapletree Logistics Trust, which lost 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 to S$1.35 with 3.2 million shares traded, and Genting Singapore, which remained unchanged at S$0.85 with 2.2 million shares traded.
Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was trading 0.3 per cent or S$0.11 lower at S$36.58, UOB was up 0.4 per cent or S$0.12 at S$32.75, while OCBC remained flat at S$14.97.
Other active index counters included Singtel, which gained 1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$3.05, and ST Engineering, which was down 0.9 per cent or S$0.04 at S$4.41.
In the US, stocks tumbled for a second straight session on Friday following a major global IT outage impacting airlines, banks, TV stations and financial institutions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.9 per cent lower at 40,287.53. The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.7 per cent to 5,505, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.8 per cent to 17,726.94.
European shares finished lower on Friday, led by a sell-off in technology shares and falling commodity-linked stocks. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.8 per cent lower at 510.03, falling to a more than two-week low.
