Singapore shares open flat on Wednesday; STI down 0.46 point

SINGAPORE shares opened almost unchanged on Wednesday, with the Straits Times Index down 0.46 point to 3,512.85 as at 9.05am.

About 64 million shares worth S$76 million in total changed hands as gainers outnumbered losers 80 to 41.

The most actively traded stock was IPCO International, which traded at S$0.003 with 17 million shares changing hands.

The second-most active counter, Noble Group, saw 9.8 million shares traded, with its shares down 15.3 per cent to S$0.094.

Active index stocks included DBS, down S$0.1 or 0.4 per cent at S$27.97; and UOB shares trading down S$0.06 or 0.2 per cent at S$28.04.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.5 per cent to 24,727.27. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent to 2,716.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 per cent to 7,364.30.

In regional markets, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.3 per cent while South Korea's Kospi was up 0.42 per cent. Japanese markets were closed on Wednesday for a holiday.