Singapore shares open higher on Thursday

SINGAPORE share prices opened 0.59 per cent higher on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 15.02 points to 2,565.76 at 9am.

On Wall Street, both the Dow and S&P rose as energy and industrial names surged on Wednesday with rising oil prices. Only the Nasdaq finished lower as Google parent Alphabet and other leading technology names retreated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 183.12 points (1.13 per cent) to 16,336.66. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 9.50 points (0.50 per cent) to 1,912.53, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12.71 points (0.28 per cent) to 4,504.24.

In Asia, stocks fell in Tokyo as exports declined on Thursday after the yen jumped against the US dollar.

According to Bloomberg, the Topix lost 1.3 per cent to 1,388.69 as at 9:39am after tumbling 3.2 per cent on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped one per cent to 17,015.43.

The yen traded at 118 per US dollar after strengthening 1.7 per cent on Wednesday, the most since August, as weak US services data fuelled anxiety that America's economy is not immune to weakness elsewhere.

On Singapore's bourse, Thursday's most active counters were Ezra (up 1.9 per cent to S$0.053); Noble (up 1.6 per cent to S$0.315); and Singtel (up 0.3 per cent to S$3.52).

Overall on the stock market, 20.6 million shares worth S$39 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 65 to 27 at 9am.