Singapore shares open lower on Friday into sub-3,000 region

SINGAPORE share prices broke through the psychological 3,000-point support level - as many had feared it will - to 2,972.05 by 9.13am on Friday.

This was a 1.25 per cent or 37.73-point drop from Thursday's close, following declines in the United States and Asia. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 hit a more than six-month low on Thursday, closing in negative territory for the year. It lost 43.88 points (2.11 per cent) to 2,035.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 358.04 points (2.06 per cent) to 16,990.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 141.56 points (2.82 per cent) to 4,877.49.

US crude edged higher after earlier hitting its lowest since March 2009, while Brent dropped 2.3 per cent to hit its lowest since January.