Singapore shares open lower on Thursday; STI sheds 0.7%

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) shedding 0.7 per cent or 20.48 points to 2,921.01 as at 9.03am.

Losers outnumbered gainers 83 to 42, or about two to one, after 98.9 million shares worth S$67.9 million had changed hands.

Offshore contractor Vallianz Holdings was an early mover, dropping 44.4 per cent or 1.6 Singapore cents to trade at two Singapore cents on the back of 13.6 million traded shares. The company announced late on Wednesday that non-executive chairman Raymond Goh had resigned for health reasons.

OCBC Bank declined by 1.4 per cent or 12 Singapore cents to S$8.73 after posting a 15 per cent drop in its second-quarter earnings. OCBC had recorded a substantial gain in the year-ago period from its sale of a stake in Great Eastern Holdings, which helped to lift the year-earlier numbers.

United Overseas Bank was down by a marginal 0.05 per cent or one Singapore cent at S$18.93. Second-quarter profit rose 5.1 per cent to S$801 million at the bank.