Singapore shares nearly flat at Friday’s open

$FTSE Singapore Straits Time Index (.STI.SG)$ headed down 0.04 per cent or 1.1 points to 3,121.85 as at 9.01 am. Across the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers 81 to 38, or about two securities up for every one down, after 93.4 million securities worth S$82.7 million changed hands.

The most active counter by volume was $Seatrium (S51.SG)$ , which held steady at S$0.105 with 32.4 million shares traded.

Other heavily traded securities included $Rex Intl (5WH.SG)$ , which added 1.2 per cent or S$0.002 to S$0.17 with 3.8 million shares transacted, and $Biolidics (8YY.SG)$ , which remained unchanged at S$0.015 with 3.6 million shares changing hands.

Other active index counters included $Singtel (Z74.SG)$ , which traded 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$2.41, and $CapLand Ascendas REIT (A17U.SG)$ , which shed 1 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.96.

Wall Street stocks finished higher on Thursday, following solid US retail sales data and central bank moves to hold interest rates steady. $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ hit a fresh record, ending 0.4 per cent higher at 37,248.35. The broad-based $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ advanced 0.3 per cent to 4,719.55, while the tech-rich $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ rose 0.2 per cent to 14,761.56.