Singapore shares open sharply lower on Thursday

SINGAPORE shares opened lower on Thursday with the benchmark Straits Times Index slipping 40.6 points or over one per cent to 2,887.6 as at 9.02am.

Some 86 million shares worth S$82 million were done. Losers outpaced gainers with 138 counters down and 30 counters up.

Wall Street closed sharply lower overnight on Wednesday, weighed down by rate hike fears, sparked by a report showing a record rise in job openings in July and falling crude oil prices. These outweighed expectations of more stimulus measures from China and Japan.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.5 per cent while the S&P 500 slipped 1.4 per cent and Nasdaq Composite shed 1.2 per cent.