STI, key Asian markets tumble after strikes on Iran; bank stocks down, energy names surge

[SINGAPORE] Asia markets declined at market open on Monday (Mar 2), after the latest US-Israel attacks on Iran over the past weekend.

It comes after a 12-day air war in June 2025 between Israel and Iran and multiple US-Israeli warnings of more strikes if Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, was declared dead earlier on Saturday, alongside several other leaders of the country.

Iran is preparing for a “crushing retaliation”, according to a Reuters report on Saturday, such that reconciliation with the West is not in sight.

Thousands of flights globally have been disrupted due to the most recent strikes, where key transit airports in Dubai and Doha in Qatar were shut or severely restricted, as the region’s airspace stayed closed.

This has affected 26 Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot flights between Feb 28 and Mar 7, which have now been cancelled. Other SIA flights could be affected, too, amid the fluid situation, said the national carrier in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The Straits Times Index opened 2.1 per cent or 103.98 points lower at 4,891.09 on Monday.

Local bank counters were a sea of red this morning; DBS was down 2 per cent or S$1.13 at S$55.96, and OCBC declined 3 per cent or S$0.65 to reach S$20.78. UOB also fell 2.3 per cent or S$0.83 to hit S$36.14.

Singapore Airlines was down 5 per cent in early trade, and continued to drop to S$6.75, trading about 6 per cent lower as at 9.05 am before last trading 5.7 per cent down.

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As for shipping stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange, Nam Cheong was down 3.6 per cent or S$0.05 at S$1.34, while Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was trading 0.7 per cent lower at S$4.31 on Monday morning. Seatrium dipped 5.4 per cent or S$0.13, hitting S$2.27.

Energy counters such as RH PetroGas surged 17.6 per cent or S$0.029 to S$0.194, and Geo Energy Resources rose 2.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$0.425 as at 9.25 am. Oil and gas exploration service Rex International was trading 15.2 per cent or S$0.022 higher at S$0.167 as at 10.35 am.

Defence name ST Engineering was also up 1.6 per cent at S$10.13 as at 9.30 am.

Gold investment-related stocks such as CNMC Goldmine spiked 10.4 per cent or S$0.18 to S$1.91 as at 9.41 am, and jeweller Aspial Lifestyle was up 2.7 per cent or S$0.01 at S$0.375.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 2 per cent, while the Topix was down 2.3 per cent in early trade.

South Korean markets are closed due to a public holiday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.4 per cent at open.

The Shanghai CSE 300 Index declined 0.3 per cent, and Australia’s ASX 200 inched down 0.4 per cent at market open as well.

Dow Futures declined over 500 points, or 1.2 per cent. S&P 500 futures also fell 1 per cent, and Nasdaq 100 futures was down over 1 per cent in overnight trading.

Meanwhile, spot gold prices rose 1.7 per cent to US$5,365.70, while Bitcoin has slumped to US$66,004, amid this period of renewed uncertainty.