Singapore shares close higher on Wall St's Friday surge

THERE were no real surprises in Monday's session as the Straits Times Index jumped 29.1 points or 1.02 per cent to 2,876.14 in response to Wall Street's Friday rally that took its major indices close to their all-time highs.

Turnover, however, was a mediocre 1.4 billion units worth S$928 million and, excluding warrants, the advance-decline score was 243-168, indicating that rises were not as widespread as the index's reading might suggest.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index gained 1.5 per cent and Japan's Nikkei jumped almost 4 per cent.The Dow futures rose 40 points.

The STI's rise was led by gains in all three banks, Singtel and Jardine Cycle & Carriage. In the second line, shares of Noble Group, which were weak last week, continued to soften, dropping S$0.005 to S$0.164 on volume of 148 million. Noble's nil-paid rights, which require a top-up of S$0.11 per rights to obtain one share, ended S$0.006 down at S$0.049 on volume of 240 million.

Two gold mining counters have been in play recently and both featured prominently again on Monday. Australian firm Anchor Resources' shares ended S$0.004 higher at S$0.151 on volume of 79.6 million while CNMC Goldmine's shares, which surged last week, plunged S$0.065 or 11.3 per cent to S$0.51 on volume of 27.6 million.

Manpower sourcing and cleaning firm Advancer Global ended its Catalist debut at S$0.39 on volume of 41 million. Its shares had been offered at S$0.22 each.