Singapore shares tumble on Wednesday, mirroring US sell-off; STI falls 1.4%

SINGAPORE – The bloodletting on the local market went up a gear on Wednesday, with shares crashing amid

a regional rout triggered by carnage on Wall Street.

Rattled investors dumped stocks to leave the Straits Times Index (STI) down a painful 1.4 per cent, or 44.96 points, to 3,147.39.

To no one’s surprise, losers belted gainers 421 to 208 on robust trade of 1.5 billion shares worth $1.3 billion.

The sell-off here and elsewhere was sparked by a Wall Street plunge overnight, as US Treasury yields continued to climb.

Sharp falls in the three key indexes ranging from 1.3 per cent to 1.9 per cent on the tech-heavy Nasdaq wiped out all the market’s gains for the year.

IG market analyst Yeap Jun Rong said such a sell-off was prompted by a “significant upside surprise” in the United States’ job opening numbers for August, which came in at 9.6 million against an expected 8.8 million.

A resilient labour market is deemed to provide more room for the US Federal Reserve to keep rates high for longer, he added.

The weak market sentiment in New York left regional indexes largely down. Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged 2.3 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.8 per cent and Malaysian stocks slipped 0.3 per cent.

South Korea’s Kospi returned from a holiday only to dive 2.4 per cent, while the Australian bourse extended its losses for a third day, falling 0.8 per cent to an 11-month low.

Singtel was the STI’s top loser as it retreated 3.3 per cent to $2.35, while the top gainer was Venture Corp, up 0.8 per cent to $12.15.

The only other gainer on the blue-chip index was Hongkong Land, which climbed 0.6 per cent to US$3.47.

Local banks were mired in red. DBS shed 0.9 per cent to $33.22, OCBC dipped 1.2 per cent to $12.65, and UOB fell 0.7 per cent to $28.07.

THE BUSINESS TIMES