Markets Briefing: Shares down as China-US tensions continue

The Straits Times Index ended Monday trade in the red along with its Asian peers, and was down by 14.38 points or 0.51% to 2,825.51.

The decline was fuelled in part by a report that the US was preparing to slap sanctions on at least a dozen Chinese officials, which will place further pressure on the trade relationship between the two powers.

Top stock losers were SembCorp Industries, down by 0.06 points or 3.24%; CityDev declined by 0.21 points or 2.62%; and UOL Group which fell by 0.17 points or 2.22%.

In the banking sector, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta expressed his concern that the global banking sector would be confronted by two major headwinds next year: rising defaults, and ultra-low interest rates.

Meanwhile, Wall Street also started the week's trade in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial closed down by 0.49% or 148.47 points to 30,069.79.

The S&P 500 also went down by 0.19% to 3,691.96, while the NASDAQ jumped by 0.45% to 12,519.95.

The London's blue-chip FTSE 100 also ended higher by 0.08% to 6,555.39. The FTSE 250 on the other hand, shed 252.96 points or 1.25% to 19,929.73.