Singapore shares open lower on Friday

SINGAPORE'S benchmark Straits Times Index opened 22.49 points or 0.75 per cent lower at 2,979.02 on Friday, following an overnight retreat of Wall Street stocks.

A potential interest-rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in December looming over investors globally, coupled with a mixed bout of earnings reports from Singapore-listed companies, may be offering little impetus for any strong direction in the local market.

At 9.02am, 90.5 million shares worth S$182.3 million were traded, with losers outpacing gainers 86 to 38.

Among the active stocks, Noble Group slipped 0.96 per cent to 51.5 cents, CapitaLand was down 1.28 per cent at S$3.09 , Global Logistic Properties was down 1.32 per cent at S$2.25 and OCBC fell 1.21 per cent to S$8.97.