Singapore shares open lower on Thursday

SINGAPORE share prices opened 0.19 per cent lower on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 5.3 points to 2,727.57 at 9.11 am.

This followed similar declines in the US and in Tokyo.

On Wall Street, US stocks dropped on Wednesday and the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst day since February as feeble quarterly reports from Walt Disney, Macy's and Fossil undermined confidence across the consumer sector.

The Dow slumped 1.21 per cent to 17,711.12 points. The S&P 500 lost 0.96 per cent to 2,064.46. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.02 per cent to 4,760.69.

In Asia, Tokyo shares opened lower on Thursday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange slumped 0.72 per cent, or 119.32 points, to 16,459.69 in opening deals, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares lost 0.94 per cent, or 12.50 points, to 1,321.80.

On the Singapore bourse, the highest value traded stocks were DBS (flat at S$14.67); OCBC (down two cents at S$8.31); and warehouse provider Global Logistic Properties (up half a cent at S$1.77) at 9.09 am.

Overall on the stock market, 64.8 million shares worth S$83.8 million changed hands, with losers outnumbering gainers 73 to 58 as at 9.10 am.