Singapore shares open flat on Friday

SINGAPORE stocks opened flat on Friday, with the Straits Times Index moving up 0.96 point to 3,229.02 as at 9.02am.

This comes on the back of US stocks ending little changed overnight, as a slump in the shares of media companies were offset by gains in healthcare shares.

On the Singapore bourse, about 50.9 million shares worth S$88.9 million in total changed hands, which worked out to an average unit price of S$1.75 per share.

The most actively traded counter was M Development, which was flat at S$0.002 with 13.8 million shares changing hands. Other actives included Swee Hong and Innopac Holdings.

Gainers outnumbered losers 58 to 45.

Elsewhere, Japan's Topix fell 0.2 per cent as Japan's Q2 economic growth was revised downwards. Similarly, Seoul's Kospi index was down 0.2 per cent and Australia's main guage was 0.1 per cent lower, whereas Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index futures were up 0.4 per cent, Bloomberg reported.