Singapore stocks open higher on Friday; STI up 0.4%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Friday morning, reversing Thursday's decline, and tracked overnight gains on Wall Street.

The Straits Times Index (STI) rose 11.83 points or 0.4 per cent to 2,788.83 as at 9.02 am. The STI had fallen 11.59 points or 0.4 per cent to 2,777 on Thursday.

Gainers outnumbered losers 97 to 26 in early trade, after 156.2 million securities worth S$73 million changed hands.

One of the most actively traded counters in the morning was Jiutian Chemical, which rose 0.3 Singapore cent or 3.3 per cent to 9.3 cents, with 13.3 million shares changing hands as at 9.03 am.

Other actively traded securities in the morning include Genting Singapore, which rose S$0.01 or 1.2 per cent to S$0.83, and Singapore Press Holdings, which rose S$0.04 or 3.8 per cent to S$1.09.

The trio of local banks were also up in early trade, with DBS up 0.7 per cent or S$0.16 to S$24.58, OCBC rising S$0.06 or 0.6 per cent to S$9.85, and UOB gaining S$0.18 or 0.8 per cent to S$22.59

In the US, stocks rose higher on Thursday as optimism over revived US stimulus talks countered worries about higher coronavirus cases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per cent at 29,483.23. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.4 per cent to 3,581.87, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.9 per cent to 11,904.71.

Elsewhere in the Asia, Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, with continued worries about rising coronavirus cases.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.60 per cent or 152.94 points at 25,481.40 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.38 per cent or 6.50 points to 1,719.91.