Singapore stocks open higher on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street gains; STI up 0.5%

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street led by technology stocks.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.5 per cent or 12.17 points to 2,587.96 as at 9.05am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 111 to 22, after 102.7 million securities worth S$65.9 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was Singapore eDevelopment, which advanced 6.6 per cent or 0.6 Singapore cent to 9.7 cents, with seven million shares changing hands.

Other heavily traded securities include Keppel Infrastructure Trust, which held steady at S$0.55, with 4.7 million shares traded, and Genting Singapore, which gained 0.7 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 75.5 cents, with 2.3 million shares changing hands.

Banking stocks rose in early trade. DBS was up 0.2 per cent or S$0.03 at S$20.61, UOB rose 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$20.23, while OCBC advanced 0.7 per cent or S$0.06 to S$9.05.

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Other active index counters include Singtel, which put on 1.2 per cent or S$0.03 to S$2.53, and the Singapore Exchange, which lost 0.5 per cent or S$0.04 to S$8.32.

In the US, Wall Street stocks closed higher on Monday led by technology stocks ahead of major economic news events, including a high-stakes congressional hearing with the heads of Amazon, Apple, and other giants.

The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 1.7 per cent at 10,536.27, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent to 26,584.77, while the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.7 per cent to 3,239.41.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo stocks opened flat on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.04 per cent or 9.53 points to 22,725.38 in early trade, while the broader Topix slipped 0.08 per cent to 1,575.42.