Thursday May 8, 03:36 AM
Singapore shares lower in early trade on Wall St's fall, oil price surge UPDATE
SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Singapore shares were lower in early trade Thursday after Wall Street retreated overnight as the price of oil soared to a fresh record near $124 a barrel, adding to inflation worries.
The Dow fell over 200 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,814.35.
Investors are worried that high oil prices may further crimp consumption and weaken the U.S. and global economy, analysts said.
The Straits Times Index was down 39.94 points or 1.2 percent at 3,189.01.
Decliners led gainers 259 to 140 with 1,143 stocks unchanged.
There were 413.8 million shares traded, valued at S$489.8 million.
Banking shares were lower after the release of first-quarter results. DBS Group fell 1.0 percent to S$20.08, United Overseas Bank (U11.SI - news) was down 3.2 percent to S$20.74 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp was down 1.7 percent at S$8.85.
StarHub (CC3.SI - news) , Singapore's second biggest telecommunications operator, dipped 0.3 percent to S$3.00 after reporting a 14.5 percent increase in first quarter net profit to S$80.1 million, largely due to lower taxes paid,
Other telecom operators were mixed, with Singapore Telecom down 1.3 percent to S$3.77 and MobileOne (B2F.SI - news) up 0.5 percent to S$1.95.
Shipyard operator SembCorp Marine (S51.SI - news) rose 1.5 percent to S$4.02. The company reported its first-quarter net profit jumped 23.9 percent to a record S$91.3 million on the strength of its ship repair, ship conversion and offshore businesses.
Among other blue chips, Singapore Airlines (C6U.SI - news) fell 1.1 percent to S$15.60 and Singapore Exchange (S68.SI - news) slipped 2.7 percent to S$9.02.
Property stocks were lower, with CapitaLand (C31.SI - news) down 1.3 percent to S$6.61, City Developments (C09.SI - news) down 3.7 percent to S$11.52 and Keppel Land (K17.SI - news) 1.8 percent lower at S$5.89.
($1 = S$1.35)
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