SINGAPORE – Declines on Wall Street overnight and losses elsewhere in the region left the local bourse with all the reason it needed to go into a cautionary retreat on Oct 16.
The downbeat sentiment nudged the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) 0.1 per cent or 4.85 points lower to 3,590.62, although gainers outnumbered losers 288 to 233 across the broader market after 1.5 billion securities worth $1.2 billion changed hands.
Wall Street set the tone with tech stocks tumbling after Dutch chip-equipment manufacturer ASML reported that wary customers could leave sales at the lower end of forecasts next year.
The warning sent the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 1 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8 per cent from Monday’s record close and the S&P 500 lost 0.8 per cent, also from a record high.
Across the region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 1.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.2 per cent and Malaysian stocks were down 0.6 per cent.
Australian shares slipped back 0.41 per cent from their 100-day record high, also due to the tech sector heading south on the back of weaker-than-expected results in the United States.
It was the local banking trio that mainly took the hits in Singapore.
DBS Bank fell 1 per cent to $39, OCBC Bank lost 0.3 per cent to finish at $15.10 and UOB closed 0.1 per cent lower at $32.34.
CGS International Securities analysts Andrea Choong and Lim Siew Khee recommend a “hold” on DBS shares. “The asset quality risks of its onshore mainland China property exposure (less than 1 per cent of group loans) remain contained, in our view, as the majority of its loans are extended to China state-owned enterprises,” they noted.
The STI’s biggest decliner was Wilmar International, down 1.2 per cent