Singapore shares open lower on Friday

SINGAPORE share prices opened 0.17 per cent lower on Friday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 5.42 points to 3,113.42 at 9.11am.

The highest value traded stocks were banks UOB (down eight Singapore cents to S$21.34), DBS (down 12 Singapore cents to S$18.82), and shipbuilder Yangzijiang (up 1.5 Singapore cent to S$1.13) at 9.12 am.

Overall, 135.8 million shares worth S$97.2 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 84 to 83 as at 9.11 am.

On Wall Street, US stocks ended slightly higher on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 2.46 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 20,858.19; the S&P 500 gained 1.89 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 2,364.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.26 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 5,838.81.

In Tokyo, stocks also opened higher on Friday with a weak yen boosting exporters. Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 0.57 per cent, or 109.23 points, to 19,427.81 in early trading, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.72 per cent, or 11.24 points, to sit at 1,565.92.