Hot stocks: Keppel, SembMarine, DBS gain amid hopes of stable oil prices

SHARES of Keppel Corporation and Sembcorp Marine (SembMarine) surged on Friday amid hopes that oil prices will stabilise. Shares of banks, which have been hit on their oil-and-gas exposure, also rose.

Keppel gained 20 Singapore cents, or 3.4 per cent, to S$6. Its peer SembMarine rose five Singapore cents, or 3 per cent, to S$1.705.

This comes on the back of a recent rally in crude oil. As at 10.10am on Friday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures for deliveries in April were up 0.35 per cent to US$34.69.

"Tell-tale signs of a bottom may be seen from higher and steeper forward curves, healthier speculative positions, and healthy demand outlook in China, Europe and US," said Barnabas Gan, economist at OCBC Bank, in a report this week. He expects WTI and Brent price to hit an eventual US$50 per barrel by the end of the year.

Separately, US fund manager Franklin Resources said on Friday it has become a substantial shareholder of SembMarine after its two funds - Templeton International and Templeton Worldwide - bought S$1.82 million in additional shares in the yard group on March 2.

Shares of DBS rose sharply on Friday, up 57 Singapore cents or 3.9 per cent, to S$15.28. Shares of OCBC rose nearly 2 per cent to S$8.77, while UOB shares gained 1.1 per cent to S$18.41.