Singapore shares open slightly higher on Thursday, in line with Wall Street

SINGAPORE share prices opened a marginal 0.3 per cent higher on Thursday, with the Straits Times Index (STI) up 8.65 points to 2,900.23 at 9am.

In the US, Wall Street stocks finished mostly higher on Wednesday, following a stream of US data ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday and the kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

In Asia, Tokyo stocks opened 0.42 per cent higher on Thursday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 82.39 points to 19,929.97 at the start, according to AFP.

Singapore's STI had slipped 32 points or 1.09 per cent on Wednesday to finish the day at 2,891.58.

On Thursday morning, Noble was the most heavily traded stock, with 31.4 million shares having changed hands, although its share price was flat at S$0.40.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's (S&P) joined Moody's Investors Service in reviewing the commodity trader's ratings amid concern about its liquidity. S&P said Noble's credit rating may be cut to junk. It is giving Noble a BBB-rating, the lowest measure for investment-grade debt.

Also active were Singtel (up 0.5 per cent to S$3.82), OCBC (up 0.2 per cent to S$8.82), and Golden Agri-Resources (flat at S$0.365).

Overall on the stock market, 91.3 million shares worth S$229.7 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 81 to 33 at 9am.