STI down as much as 1.7% after US strikes on Iran; DBS drops 3.3%

[SINGAPORE] Shares of DBS fell as much as 3.3 per cent on Wednesday (Jun 10) morning, dragging the Straits Times Index (STI) down as much as 1.7 per cent.

The drop came after the US on Tuesday launched fresh strikes against Iran in response to a downed Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. Singapore equities were subsequently mainly down in the first hour of trading on Wednesday.

Shares of DBS and major technology stocks such as AEM in Singapore fell, tracking Wall Street’s reversal after two days of gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices fell on Tuesday, as a rebound in technology shares faded and investors continued rotating out of tech stocks.

The DBS counter fell as low as S$61.63 within the first hour of trading, erasing more than S$6 billion in value for the S$180 billion-valued bank. This saw the STI drop as low as 4,939.53 points.

Prices of West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose more than 1 per cent to over US$89 a barrel after the latest round of attacks.