S'pore shares down after sell-off on Wall Street

The sell-off on Wall Street overnight amid uncertainties over the Russia-Ukraine crisis sent locals shares sliding yesterday.

The souring mood left the Straits Times Index down 34 points or 0.99 per cent at 3,408.52, with gainers trailing losers 203 to 270 on trade of 1.48 billion shares worth $1.4 billion.

While peace talks between Russia and Ukraine held promise of a de-escalation of war in the early part of the week, a lull in the fighting seems as far off as ever.

"The ongoing hot and cool tone in the geopolitical conflict may continue to drive shifts in market sentiment as we edge closer to the weekend break," said IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong.

Regional markets ended mixed with Japan's Nikkei index closing 0.73 per cent lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.06 per cent.

Hong Kong's retail sales contracted 14.6 per cent in February from a year ago, the biggest decline since July 2020 as the government imposed tough restrictions to battle the city's worst-ever Covid-19 outbreak.

On the other hand, South Korea's benchmark Kospi ended up 0.4 per cent while the Jakarta Composite and the Kuala Lumpur Composite both climbed 0.26 per cent.

Australian shares fell 0.2 per cent to end in the red for the first time in more than a week as sliding oil prices took their effect. But the market did end 0.7 per cent up for the first quarter.

Wall Street's four-day winning streak came to an abrupt end with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2 per cent, the S&P 500 falling 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite retreating 1 per cent.

Among the STI's constituents, Jardine Matheson extended losses, closing down 3.48 per cent to US$55. The top gainer was Singapore Exchange, which closed 0.81 per cent higher at $9.97.

The local banking trio ended in the red, with UOB down 0.9 per cent to $32.02, DBS off 0.83 per cent to $35.83 and OCBC slipping 0.56 per cent to $12.38.