Singapore shares edge up at Wednesday's open; STI up 0.1%

SINGAPORE stocks inched up on Wednesday following rallies in the US and Europe markets. Singapore's Straits Times Index was up 0.1 per cent or 1.61 points to 2,573.97 as at 9.03am.

Gainers outnumbered losers 74 to 49, after 72.4 million securities worth S$59.2 million changed hands.

One of the most active counters by volume was CapitaLand which held steady at S$2.88 with 4.3 million shares traded. Other heavily traded securities include SATS which was down 0.7 per cent or S$0.02 to S$2.96 with 1.7 million shares traded and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding which rose 0.5 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent to 96.5 cents.

Banking stocks were mixed in early morning trade. DBS was trading up 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 to S$19.71 on a cum-dividend basis, while OCBC Bank fell 0.3 per cent or S$0.03 to S$8.87 on a cum-dividend basis.

UOB was up 0.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$19.95. The lender had reported a smaller-than-expected 19 per cent drop in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, but it increased impairment charges to reflect worsening economic conditions due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Other active index counters include Singapore Airlines, which fell 27.4 per cent or S$1.62 to S$4.29 on an ex-rights basis, and Singtel, which was down 0.4 per cent or S$0.01 to S$2.72.

In the US, stocks finished higher on Tuesday continued optimism about steps to reopen the US economy and as oil prices rallied on expectations for a bounce in demand. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent to end at 23,883.09, the S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent to close at 2,868.44, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1 per cent to 8,809.12.

European stocks ended higher on Tuesday amid a slew of positive earnings, along with some optimism after the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions in some countries. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed about 2.2 per cent higher.

Elsewhere in Asia, financial markets in Japan are closed on Wednesday for a public holiday.