Singapore shares open 0.66% higher on Thursday

SINGAPORE shares opened higher on Thursday with the Straits Times Index up 0.66 per cent or 22.06 points to 3,353.2 as at 9.02am, following gains in stock markets globally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the session up 0.79 per cent or 138.4 points at 17,757.91 on Wednesday, as investors looked beyond the Greece crisis and focused on economic data. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.53 per cent or 26.26 points at 5,013.12.

In the region, the Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 1.31 per cent or 266.01 points to 20,595.85 at the start of trading on Thursday, while the S&P/ASX200 at the Australian Securities Exchange was up 0.5 per cent or 29.4 points to 5,545.1 points.

In Singapore, the biggest gainers in early trading on Thursday were UOB, DBS and OCBC, as well as Singapore Airlines.

Some 38.4 million shares worth S$129.1 million changed hands. Gainers outnumbered losers 109 to 34.