Singapore shares open 0.94% higher on Wednesday

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Wednesday. At 9.01am, the benchmark Straits Times Index was up 26.68 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 2,868.62.

This followed US stocks, which rallied over one per cent on Tuesday after data showed healthy growth in consumer spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 228.89 points, or 1.4 per cent, to end at 16,599.85 points. The S&P 500 gained 1.28 per cent to 1,978.09 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.14 per cent to 4,860.52.

In Tokyo, stocks opened 1.17 per cent higher on Wednesday morning, with the Nikkei 225 index gaining 211.67 points to 18,238.15 in the first minutes of trading.

On the local bourse, some 42.5 million shares worth S$62.9 million changed hands as at 9.01am, with gainers outnumbering losers 111 to 37.

Financial institutions, such as Great Eastern, UOB, DBS and OCBC, were among the early top gainers, while the Singapore Exchange was also up 9 cents or 1.2 per cent to S$7.54, a day after it said it has formed three independent committees to advise the market regulator on listing, disciplinary and appeal matters.

This is aimed at giving SGX the benefit of an independent, industry-led body that can help the exchange better handle complex or unusual listing applications, it said.