Singapore shares open flat on Thursday; STI down 0.01% to 3,156

SINGAPORE stocks opened flat on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index retreating 0.28 point to 3,156 as at 9.04am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 56 to 48, as some 37.6 million shares worth S$117.2 million in total changed hands.

The most actively traded counter was YZJ Shipbuilding, flat at S$1.09 with 4.4 million shares changing hands. Golden Agri-Resources was the second most-traded counter with four million shares traded, down 3.45 per cent or one Singapore cent to 28 Singapore cents.

Among active index stocks, DBS slipped 0.25 per cent or six Singapore cents to S$24.43, while Singtel rose 0.32 per cent, or one Singapore cent, to S$3.17.

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday with investors retreating to the sidelines to look for fresh trading pegs while trying to confirm the extent of damage from a big earthquake in northern Japan.

In US markets overnight, the Nasdaq fell more than 1 per cent on Wednesday, dented by tech stocks after Facebook and Twitter executives defended their companies before sceptical US lawmakers.

Adding to pressure on technology stocks, the Justice Department later said it would meet state attorneys general to discuss worries that social media platforms were "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas". Facebook and Twitter were not specifically named.