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Thursday, October 29, 2020-9: 50 am
SINGAPORE shares floundered at the open Thursday, following a weak lead from the US and European markets overnight as pandemic fears rocked global markets. Investor sentiment was shaken amid growing concerns about the Covid-19 shutdowns, as France and Germany announced tough new restrictions and cases in the United States continued to rise.
The poor performance on the Singapore stock exchange also comes after the Straits Times Index (STI) posted its third straight day of declines on Wednesday, as sentiments continued to be affected by the surge in Covid-19, plus global economic pessimism and risks related to the next. United States elections.
On Thursday, the benchmark STI index fell 19.26 points or 0.8 percent to 2,464.22 at 9:01 am. M. Losers outnumbered winners 111 to 33, after 50.3 million securities worth S $ 61.9 million changed hands.
Among indexed securities, the most traded by volume was CapitaLand Mall Trust, which fell S $ 0.05 or 2.8 percent to S $ 1.77, with 4.4 million units traded. Singtel lost S $ 0.01 or 0.5 percent to S $ 2.08, with 2.1 million shares traded.
In the middle of a red sea, bank stocks fell in early trading. UOB fell S $ 0.05 or 0.3% to S $ 19.35, OCBC fell S $ 0.01 or 0.1% to S $ 8.54, while DBS fell S $ 0.27 or 1, 3% to Singapore $ 20.63.
Work is underway on a digital currency exchange backed by Singapore’s largest lender DBS, although the bank is still in the process of seeking regulatory approval. Industry watchers say that if approved, the DBS Digital Exchange could be one of the world’s first crypto exchanges backed by a traditional bank.
Other active securities included Mapletree Commercial Trust, which decreased S $ 0.07 or 3.8 percent to S $ 1.78.
In the United States, Wall Street stocks experienced a strong selloff on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 3.4 percent, or more than 940 points, to 26,519.95. The tech-focused Nasdaq plunged 3.7 percent to 11,004.87 at the closing bell, while the broad-based S&P 500 lost 3.5 percent to 3,271.03, its worst. fall in almost two months.
Stephen Innes, Axi’s chief global markets strategist said: “Global markets shook on Wednesday as a disturbing rise in coronavirus infections shattered investor psyche and now represents a clear and present danger to a nascent economic recovery.”
Similarly, European equities took a beating on Wednesday as investors dumped riskier assets out of fear of further lockdowns and uncertainty over a British trade deal with the European Union. London shares tumbled, with the bluechip FTSE 100 index hitting a six-month low to close 2.6 percent lower.
In a market commentary on Thursday morning, Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX, noted that Asia-Pacific stocks could be vulnerable to a deeper pullback after a Wall Street bloodbath session due to the virus resurgence. .
Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday, extending declines on Wall Street on mounting concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index and the broader Topix index fell 0.9 percent each in early trading.
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