Singapore shares open lower on Friday; STI drops 2%

SINGAPORE stocks opened lower on Friday, with the Straits Times Index shedding 69.85 points, or 2 per cent, to 3,346.05 as at 9.01am.

This came as Wall Street tumbled overnight, with a late selloff seeing its equities gauges in correction territory.

On the Singapore bourse, about 101.7 million shares worth S$149.8 million changed hands. Losers outnumbered gainers 247 to 8.

The most actively traded counters were Marco Polo Marine, which fell 6.38 per cent, or 0.3 Singapore cent to 4.4 Singapore cents with 7.8 million shares traded; and Jiutian Chemical Group which fell 9.7 per cent, or 0.6 Singapore cent to 5.6 Singapore cents with 4.4 million shares traded.

Other active index stocks include Singtel which fell 0.6 per cent, or two Singapore cents to S$3.38; and Keppel Corp which fell 3.6 per cent, or 29 Singapore cents to S$7.87.