Singapore shares open 0.2% down on Thursday

SINGAPORE stocks opened 0.2 per cent lower on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index shedding 7.66 points to 3,341.14 as at 9.01am, on the back of mixed US markets overnight.

The Dow climbed above the 22,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday, buoyed by Apple's healthy quarterly iPhone sales, while weakness in other technology stocks held back the Nasdaq and S&P 500. Apple jumped 4.7 per cent to a record high after the world's largest publicly listed company recorded strong results.

On the Singapore bourse, about 48.6 million shares worth S$63.5 million in total changed hands, which worked out to an average unit price of S$1.31 per share.

The most actively traded counter was Genting Singapore, which rose S$0.025 to S$1.205 with 7.4 million shares changing hands. Other actives included Addvalue Tech and Rowsley.

Losers outnumbered gainers 51 to 46, or about 10 down for every nine up.

Elsewhere, stocks from Japan and Australia retreated, dragging down the MSCI Asia Pacific Index from its highest since December 2007.

South Korea's index tumbled 1.2 per cent, pulled lower by Samsung Electronics Co and engineering stocks that declined on government measures to cool the housing market, Bloomberg reported.