Singapore shares open lower on Friday; STI dips 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Friday, with the Straits Times Index losing 3.45 points, or 0.1 per cent to 3,543.78 as at 9.02am.

This came as US stocks ended mostly lower overnight in yet another choppy session, due to unease over the prospect of higher interest rates as treasury bond yields hit multi-year highs.

On the Singapore bourse, about 151.3 million shares worth S$121.7 million changed hands.

Gainers outnumbered losers 83 to 65.

The most actively traded counters were Marco Polo Marine, which fell 5.09 per cent, or 0.3 Singapore cent to 5.6 Singapore cents with 194 million shares traded; and Allied Tech which was up 1.39 per cent, or 0.1 Singapore cent, to 7.3 Singapore cents with 13.7 million shares traded.

Other active index stocks included DBS which was down 0.4 per cent, or 11 Singapore cents to S$26.50; and OCBC Bank which was down 0.39 per cent, or five Singapore cents to S$12.88.