Singapore shares open lower on Thursday

SINGAPORE share prices opened 0.53 per cent lower on Thursday with the Straits Times Index down 16.81 points to 3,128.48 at 9.04am.

This followed Wall Street, where stocks finished mostly lower on Wednesday as steep drops in petroleum-linked shares and industrial heavyweight Caterpillar weighed on the broader market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to 20,855.73, ending the day 0.3 per cent lower. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.2 per cent to close at 2,362.98, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up less than 0.1 per cent to 5,837.55.

On the Singapore bourse, among the highest value traded stocks were DBS (down 23 Singapore cents to S$19.05); Singtel (down three Singapore cents to S$3.90); Sembcorp Marine (down 5.5 Singapore cents to S$1.91) and Keppel (down 15 Singapore cents to S$6.80).

Overall on the stock market, 103.5 million shares worth S$72.8 million changed hands. Losers outnumbered gainers 108 to 59 as at 9.04am.