Singapore shares close up by 1.28% on Friday

SINGAPORE stocks bounced back into positive territory on Friday, with the benchmark Straits Times Index up by 44.76 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 3,533.22.

Across the bourse, gainers outnumbered losers 274 to 156, or roughly seven up for every four down.

Around 1.89 billion shares were traded in all, for a value of S$1.42 billion.

Penny stock Nico Steel Holdings topped the actives list for the day, with 311.24 million shares changing hands.

The counter lost 0.1 Singapore cent, or 25 per cent, to 0.3 Singapore cent.

Precision manufacturer JEP Holdings was second-most hotly traded, on a turnover of almost 125.87 million shares.

JEP added 1.5 Singapore cents, or 19.74 per cent, to 9.1 Singapore cents.

On the index, Singtel was also a popular kid, gaining three Singapore cents, or 0.9 per cent, to S$3.38 on a volume of 20.87 million shares.

Venture closed up by S$1.63, or 6.51 per cent, at S$26.66.