Singapore shares open lower on Tuesday

SINGAPORE share prices opened 0.62 per cent lower on Tuesday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 16.17 points to 2,586.24 at 9am.

On Wall Street, stocks finished little changed on Monday, shrugging off a drop in oil prices to hold most of the gains from Friday's rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 17.12 points (0.10 per cent) to 16,449.18. The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.86 (0.04 per cent) to 1,939.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 6.41 (0.14 per cent) to 4,620.37.

In Asia, Tokyo shares opened lower on Tuesday, after a weak lead from financial markets in Europe and on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.83 per cent, or 148.71 points, to 17,716.52 in opening deals, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.93 per cent, or 13.66 points, to 1,449.01.

The STI's dip on Tuesday morning followed from Monday, when it had nursed a 26.7 point or a one per cent drop to 2,602.41.

Tuesday's most active counters were DBS (down 1.2 per cent to S$13.61); Noble (flat at S$0.305), and Singtel (down 0.3 per cent to S$3.480).

Overall on the stock market, 20.2 million shares worth S$60.4 million changed hands, with losers outnumbering gainers 55 to 47 at 9am.