SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Friday (Jan 6), tracking overnight declines on Wall Street as investors await an upcoming US government jobs report for December.
The Straits Times Index (STI) fell 0.3 per cent or 10.36 points to 3,282.30 as at 9.01 am. Losers outnumbered gainers 61 to 47 after 51 million shares worth S$54.9 million changed hands.
Asia-Pacific Strategic Investment : 5RA 0% was the most actively traded counter by volume this morning, with 7.7 million shares changing hands but remained flat at S$0.001. Lendlease Global Reit : JYEU -0.74% was the runner-up by volume with 4.8 million shares traded, but units of the Reit remained unchanged at S$0.675.
Among index counters, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust : C38U -1.96% saw active trading with 1.4 million shares changing hands, and fell 0.5 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.03.
Banking stocks were mixed in early trade, with DBS : D05 -0.03% dipping 0.2 per cent or S$0.08 to S$34.70, and UOB : U11 -0.23% shedding 0.9 per cent or S$0.29 to S$30.68. OCBC : O39 +0.4% gained 0.2 per cent or S$0.02 to S$12.46 as at 9.01 am.
In the US, solid hiring data translated into another round of interest rate angst on Thursday, with US stocks ending sharply lower ahead of an upcoming government jobs report.
Thursday’s drop comes ahead of Friday’s government jobs report for December. Analysts expect the US economy added 210,000 jobs in December and that the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1 per cent at 32,930.08. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.2 per cent to 3,808.10, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.5 per cent to 10,305.24.
In Europe, shares slipped on Thursday as media stocks were weighed by declines in British education group Pearson, while data suggesting tight labour conditions in the US raised similar fears about the Federal Reserve keeping rates higher for longer.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.2 per cent lower, having climbed more than 3 per cent in the first three sessions of 2023.
It was also the first time in the week that European shares fell on par with their Wall Street counterparts after data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a three-month low last week, highlighting US labour market resilience.
(Source : BUSINESS TIMES) , all rights reserved by original source.
