Hong Kong and Shanghai markets led a broad Asian sell-off on Thursday after China set tepid 2015 economic and trade growth targets, while the euro struggled to recover from 11-year lows ahead of a key European Central Bank meeting.
Wall Street provided a negative lead again despite an upbeat report on the state of the US economy and another round of healthy private-sector jobs growth.
Hong Kong fell 0.78 per cent and Shanghai lost 0.56 per cent, while Sydney slipped 0.26 per cent.
Tokyo added 0.22 per cent by lunch and Seoul was flat.
SINGAPORE share prices opened lower on Thursday with the Straits Times Index (STI) down 0.03 points to 3,415.50 at 9.10 am, taking cues from the retreat in US markets, and ahead of the European Central Bank's meeting that will detail its quantitative easing measures.
Top losers in early trading include oil-related counters SIA, and Keppel Corp.
Some 77.5 million shares worth S$122 million changed hands, with gainers outnumbering losers 70 to 67.
SOMETIMES the movement of the Straits Times Index doesn't properly represent how the broad market performed at any given point in time. This is often when a few large cap components exert a lopsided influence on the index, thus giving the impression of a session that was either stronger or weaker than it actually was.
Wednesday's session however, was not one such occasion - the STI rose five points and stayed there for virtually the whole session, before weakening in the final 20 minutes. Its eventual nett loss of 6.58 points at 3,415.53 accurately suggested a session that was boring, weak and lacking in notable features - which it was. The advance-decline score excluding warrants was 210-229.
